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Kang Lanlan - the orphan girl who became a teacher

In May 2017, we returned to western China to review the Gansu Basic Education Project (GBEP), a UK aid-funded scheme that piloted interventions to address problems of poor access, high drop-out, low teaching quality and poor management.

During the review we met with some of the students, teachers and government officials to find what impact GBEP had on their lives.

Download our review of the sustainability of the Gansu Basic Education Project

When GBEP began, Kang Lanlan was a thirteen year-old orphan from rural Gansu who could not afford to go to school. She received a scholarship that was guaranteed to her for the duration of her schooling.

It was a bright, sunny afternoon when we returned to meet Kang Lanlan in Suhe Primary School in Kangle, one of the four counties the project supported. It was an emotional meeting for us all – the young teenager had transformed into a woman, with two children of her own and a career as a teacher.

In 2011, she began her studies with Lanzhou University, graduating in 2014 with a bachelor degree in Chinese language. Her students’ performance in her English class is the best in her school district and she has twice received a county Excellent Teacher Award. She attributes her success to the chance GBEP gave her 17 years ago to continue with her schooling – “without that, I would have had no opportunity”.

One of the most touching things about meeting Kang Lanlan again was seeing what a role model she has become to others. When we asked her to teach a demonstration class for us, she threw herself into the task with enthusiasm – engaging confidently with the children, doing activities with them, pushing and testing their learning as she went along. These were all the approaches GBEP had introduced during the project period: to make children the centre of the learning experience. Here was a girl who had benefited in the classroom from such approaches now becoming the type of teacher she had admired.

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