CHINA / Newsmaker
A class of his own
By Wen Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-05 09:24
Located in a remote village in Kuandian County of Northeast China's
Liaoning Province, there is a small school probably the smallest one in
the world with only one teacher and one student, 9-year-old Liangliang
(not his real name).
With only one teacher and a single student, the school in Kuandian
County, Liaoning Province, might be the smallest school in the world.
[China Daily]
The young boy is an HIV carrier and has been studying in this school for
the past two years.
Liangliang's father used to be a sailor on a foreign ship. Unfortunately,
when he returned his home village 10 years ago, he was found to be
infected with HIV.
AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is caused by HIV (Human
Immunodeficiency Virus), which commonly causes the death of the infected
persons in seven to 10 years by destroying their immune system.
The father infected Liangliang's mother and the mother spread the disease
to Liangliang before he was born.
During an interview with China's Central Television (CCTV), Sun Hongxue,
deputy head of the local disease prevention station, said at that time,
public consciousness against HIV/AIDS was not as well developed as it is
today.
Although his parents knew they were infected by the deadly virus, they
still decided to have Liangliang without any medical assistance which
could block the transmission of HIV from mothers to the babies.
Liangliang and his parents have had a healthy life over the past eight
years.
But HIV/AIDS is increasingly being considered a disastrous disease, which
means many people go to great lengths to avoid HIV carriers like
Liangliang even though he has not developed AIDS.
Although research has concluded that normal interaction, such as eating
or swimming together does not transmit HIV/AIDS, educating the public
about those facts is a difficult matter.
Few people know that the main ways to infect others are through
needle-sharing, sexual intercourse and from mother to infant during
pregnancy.
When Liangliang first went to the local school, many of the other
students' parents immediately withdrew their children.
Liu Yanqing, deputy head of the township government of Liangliang's
village, recalled: "We had been trying to persuade parents that it is
safe for their children to stay with Liangliang, but no one believed
this."
Three days after enrolling, Liangliang had to leave the school.
But the local government said that Liangliang could not lose his right to
an education. It decided to establish a one-child school with only one
teacher.
Wang Lijun, 57, a retired director of the culture station of Liangliang's
township, became Liangliang's teacher.
Wang had been a teacher for 12 years, and as a former cultural official,
he was not afraid of HIV/AIDS.
"But it took me and my son-in-law a dentist several days to persuade my
wife to accept my new position," he said.
One teacher, one child
With the assistance of various social organizations, the one-child school
was formally launched in an office of the villagers' commission in
November 2004. Wang taught Liangliang Chinese, mathematics, sports and
art.
The teacher soon found it is not an easy task to teach Liangliang alone.
"The boy is so clever that he learns new things quickly. Besides, there
are no other kids, so Liangliang soon lost interest in many courses and
sports games," Wang said.
Although young, Liangliang seems understand what HIV/AIDS means.
"Others do not play with me. When I came close to them, they would run
away," Liangliang told CCTV reporters.
In order to keep the boy's spirits up, Wang had to work late everyday to
design new teaching methods and playing games to interest Liangliang.
Because the sports facilities are very limited and there are no other
players, the most common game for Wang and Liangliang to play is table
tennis.
Money troubles
Economic challenges appeared as well.
Each winter, Wang had to lobby different government departments to get
money for coal. With the winter of the new-year looming, buying coal has
become a big burden for Wang.
But maybe the biggest challenge is Liangliang's health. Last year, his
parents went from being HIV carriers to being AIDS patients. Now they are
receiving anti-viral treatments, which, at best, could temporarily block
the virus' further development.
Liangliang has not developed symptoms yet.
"In China so far, a HIV carrier does not survive longer than 12 years so
we have not prepared for Liangliang's middle school, which couldn't also
be a one-child school; it would be impossible," Liu said.
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