China Energy Supports Education in Mountains

Every early morning just after sunrise, students at Qiaowo county, Puge town of Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Sichuan, begin their journey on foot to schools five kilometers away.

An extremely poor area in China, the county seriously lacks education resources and infrastructure. 

When it became the designated poverty alleviation target of China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy), the company initiated an education project valued at about 29.5 million yuan ($4.16 million).

The largest poverty alleviation project in education in Puge, it focuses on building of a primary school. Construction started in early 2019.

It is expected that the school will be completed in September 2020 and will be able to accommodate 600 pupils.

China Energy had sent many people to the region for investigation and survey and communicated with the local government, design institutes and industrial experts on construction plans.

Heads of outstanding primary schools in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, were also invited to participate in development of the plan to guarantee that the school would meet teaching requirements. 

The school will have separate areas for teaching and sports. 

Covering 6,718.10 square meters, it includes a comprehensive teaching building, a teachers' dorm, a student canteen as well as supporting housing and facilities.

It also features a track-and-field ground, a 60-meter straight track and a five-a-side football pitch as well as many other sports resources.

The parking lot is underground and the greening rate on campus is about 36.4 percent.

China Energy is taking full advantage of its professional engineering skills and has arranged specialists in engineering, safety and contracts to participate in the management of the construction. 

More than 20 suggestions covering geological exploration risk control, inspection of raw materials, program testing as well as safe engineering and power utilization were raised to guarantee the project proceeds in an orderly manner.

So far, basic concreting of the teaching building, teachers' dorms and students' canteen has been completed and the main body of the school will be completed in May. Decoration will be finished in August and a month later in September the school will welcome its first students.

It is estimated that the school can recruit as many as 630 students in 14 classes from three places  - Dacao and Tekou villages and Qiaowo county - which will greatly improve the local academic environment and promote development of compulsory education in targeted poverty alleviation regions.

In addition to the school construction, China Energy established an education fund to encourage outstanding teachers at the school and help improve teaching quality as well as teachers’ income.

Utilization of clean power in the area is also a goal of China Energy. The company initiated a photovoltaic (PV) power project as a part of the school construction which is expected to produce about 226,000 kWh of electricity though 1,800 CIGS PV modules.

The power project will not only meet the power demands of the school, but will also contribute to development of the region.

The project can help reduce electricity consumption by about 100,000 yuan annually when completed.

The design image of the school in Qiaowo county [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

Construction site of the school in Qiaowo county [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)