A group of 140 college students from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau embarked yesterday on a short summer project working as volunteer teachers at 16 remote schools on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) launched its “Hoping, Download” program last year to recruit students in the region with the idea of spreading hope and knowledge to as many places as possible.
Last year, 100 university students took part in the initiative, while this year, 140 students — 49 of them from NTNU and 91 from 13 universities in China and the two special Chinese administrative regions — took part.
The 140 volunteers have been divided into teams, each of which is expected to visit a junior high school in a remote area to teach for about a week.
The student teachers will start their teaching in Taiwan on Saturday, before moving to Hebei Province, Sichuan Province and Chongqing in China between July 23 and July 31.
The volunteers took a ceremonial oath at NTNU before heading off to their respective destinations. Xu Yiting (徐藝婷) of Peking University said she felt lucky to be part of the summer scheme.
She said she was well aware that spending such a short period of time in a school would not help the students achieve better grades or send them to good universities, but expressed confidence that the volunteers would leave a positive mark on the lives of the young students with whom they come into contact.
NTNU student Wang Yen-ting (王嬿婷) said this small effort by the volunteers would become something big in the future.
Minister of Education Wu Ching-ji (吳清基), who was invited to attend the ceremony, praised the commitment of the college students.
He said the facilities at remote schools in Taiwan are above standard, but added that some of the students need to be stimulated to discover the pleasure of study.
Citing himself as an example, the minister said he grew up in a poor rural family, but education empowered him to climb the social ladder to the point that he now has the opportunity to serve the public.
“Education is the best investment,” he said.
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