Teacher brings coding to children in remote border village

Chen Yuanchun, a rural teacher in southwest China's Yunnan Province who previously had no knowledge of coding, introduced the novel course to her students, bringing a positive influence on these rural children.

A student learns programming in a primary school in Mengdong township, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, Lincang city, Yunnan Province.  (Photo/Xu Jun)

Chen, 44, is a Chinese language teacher in a primary school in Mengdong township, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, Lincang city, Yunnan. In 2018, China's Ministry of Education started to help the county with a weak education system apply information technology to education. In November that year, Chen joined the first batch of teachers to study coding for teens.

Coding, which involves telling a machine to perform actions and complete tasks, is challenging for a beginner like Chen. "It involves several different instructions such as branch and cycle, as well as math and other subjects. So it is somewhat difficult," she said.

Chen Yuanchun instructs students in a coding group in a primary school in Mengdong township, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, Lincang city, Yunnan Province. (Photo/Xu Jun)

Chen attended all the online and offline courses, and studied in her spare time. "Learning coding is not only an eye-opener, but also improves logical thinking and creativity," she said.

After mastering the basic knowledge for coding for teens, Chen set up a coding group in the school and was about to teach the group members, but she was opposed by their parents, who disapproved of the idea because of a lack of understanding.

So she taught students of her own class during self-learning classes. Chen always asked the students to draw a flow chart before creating a program, and asked them to introduce their programs after they finished, which helped improve their expressive language skills.

Students work together on programming in a primary school in Mengdong township, Cangyuan Wa Autonomous County, Lincang city, Yunnan Province. (Photo/Xu Jun)

After one semester, every student ended up with a satisfactory work such as animation and games. Teachers found those who learned coding showed a higher concentration when studying and better logic skills. "Evidently, coding has brought positive influence to them," she said. Their parents, who once frowned on the decision to learn coding, became very supportive. Some students even won awards in a national competition last year.

"I will work harder and hope these children in the mountainous regions will embrace more possibilities in the future through information technology," Chen said.