Use education as a bridge to promote people-to-people bonds
China-Laos Friendship Nongbing Village Primary School is located in Chamtaburi County, Vientiane City, Laos, about 5 kilometers away from the city center. Before receiving funding from the China Peace Development Foundation, Nongbing Village Primary School had the worst hardware among the county’s primary schools. The school can only accommodate 125 students, and the classrooms are a row of dilapidated bungalows that have fallen into disrepair. Schools are not connected to electricity, teaching materials are severely lacking, and recreational facilities are even blank.
The arrival of the China Peace and Development Foundation changed everything. In June 2012, the China Peace Development Foundation entered Laos for the first time to carry out a project to benefit the people, and funded to support the Lao side to build a new school building on the original school site of Nongbing Village. The new school building is a two-story teaching building with a total construction area of about 800 square meters. .
In March 2013, in order to further improve the teaching conditions of the Nongbing Village Primary School, the foundation funded the purchase of cultural and educational supplies for the school and the construction of staff dormitories. Since then, the China Foundation for Peace and Development and the Chinese Embassy have also donated materials to the Nongbing Village Primary School for many times, including projectors, computers, SLR cameras, ping pong tables, various books and teaching utensils.
In May 2013, the new teaching building was completed, including 3 preschool classrooms, 1 preschool and 1st grade to 5th grade classrooms, and 1 meeting room and library. The school has 12 teachers and 262 students.
Nowadays, compared with other nearby primary schools, the teaching environment and teaching conditions of Nongbing Village Primary School have obvious advantages, and the school has been rated as a “model school” and “beautiful campus” in Vientiane City. Many students far away from the school will also be sent to Nongbing Village Primary School by their parents.
The excellent teaching conditions have also allowed the Nongbing Village Primary School to take on more tasks in the local area. Every year, teacher training and some large conferences in Chamtaburi County will be held at the Nongbing Village Primary School.
In addition to excellent teaching conditions, Chinese courses are also a highlight of the China-Laos Friendship Nongbing Village Primary School.
With the increasingly close economic exchanges between China and Laos, more and more jobs related to China have begun to appear. Nowadays, in Laos, it is easier for people who can speak Chinese to find a job, which makes many Lao people realize the importance of learning Chinese. With funding and assistance from the China Peace and Development Foundation, Nongbing Village Primary School has opened a Chinese language course, where students can learn Chinese and understand China and Chinese culture.
According to Lin Jieyu, a volunteer Chinese teacher at Nongbing Village Primary School in China and Lao, the Chinese language course at Nongbing Village Primary School mainly includes two parts: Chinese knowledge and Chinese culture. In terms of Chinese knowledge, the main content taught in the lower-grade Chinese class includes Hanyu Pinyin, simple Chinese words, and nursery rhymes. The main content of the upper-grade Chinese class is based on three Chinese textbooks: "Kids Chinese 2", "Kids Chinese 3" and "Happy Chinese", teaching some daily Chinese sentences. In the Chinese culture course, students will be taught to sing some representative Chinese songs and dance some relatively easy-to-learn Chinese dances. In addition, there are also calligraphy and ink painting experience classes and paper-cutting classes.
Local students are very enthusiastic about Chinese courses. "Every day, students come to ask us if they have Chinese lessons in their class today? If they do, they will be very happy and convey the news to each other." said Yao Changhua, a volunteer Chinese teacher at Zhonglao Nongbing Village Primary School. People who master Chinese have a great advantage when looking for a job. I hope that the experience of learning Chinese in school can take root and sprout in the future life and work of the students like a seed, and bloom the flowers of friendship between China and Laos.