For the relative fairness of the starting point
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Lu Mai, deputy director of the China Development Research Foundation, gave a detail: In the western countryside, a boy was tied to the head of a bed when he was 18 months old. His radius of activity was only one rope.
This is the best way his elderly great-grandmother can come up with, not to delay farm work, but also to ensure the safety of the children.
The foundation’s latest research found that in rural areas, some parents do not understand feeding methods and often give their children a single staple food such as noodles and steamed buns; some parents mistakenly believe that milk powder is more nutritious than breast milk, so they leave it to boys to drink. Girls drink breast milk; many families lack books and toys. TVs and mobile phones have become tools for children to pass the time. Electronic games and short videos flood their children’s childhood. Some parents buy snacks for their children as soon as they have money. The "five-mao snacks" produced by regular manufacturers cannibalize children's teeth.
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Luo Zhilan didn't think about how much impact she could have on a child's life every time she took a child to play.
She just came to the door of the child's house as usual on weekends and called "Luo Yanqian."
"Hey!" Upon hearing this familiar voice, Luo Yanqian, who was more than 2 years old, immediately guessed who it was.
She trot with excitement and plunged into Luo Jilan's arms.
Luo Zhilan is 35 years old this year, slightly older than the girl's mother who works outside.
Luo Zhilan's role is like a teacher and a mother. She is a home visitor in Tuanjie Village, Hongshilin Town, Guzhang County, Hunan Province. She is also known as a nursery counselor.
The children in the village from half to 3 years old are all her clients.
In June 2018, the China Development Research Foundation began to implement the "Wise Education China: Early Childhood Education Program in Mountain Villages" in Guzhang, Hunan. This project is aimed at the early development of rural children aged 0-3 and employs local rural women as parenting counselors Train them so that they can provide scientific education and nutrition guidance during home visits.
In Guzhang, there are 31 village-level interviewers like Luo Zhilan, in addition to 7 township supervisors and 1 county-level chief supervisor.
Fill the gap in growth
Guzhang, located at the junction of Hunan, Guizhou, and Chongqing, was previously one of the most difficult areas.
Guzhang is mountainous and the per capita arable land is less than 1 mu.
Tuanjie Village is hidden in the crevices of the mountains, and it can only be reached through layers of white fog and bypassing the Huanshan Road.
Luo Zhilan has been a home visitor for more than two years, and eight children have "graduated" from her.
Luo Zhilan only has a high school education, but in the opinion of Peng Liyan, the home visit supervisor of Hongshilin Township, the mother of this 8-year-old child is patient and caring, and is deeply loved by the children.
She visits 11 children at home every weekend.
On September 19, 2020, Luo Yanqian received the third home visit this month.
In about an hour, Luo Zhilan will take her to complete three puzzles, read the story of "I'm Hungry" in the picture album, so that the children can understand and answer questions, and also teach a nursery rhyme "Pull the Carrot".
These contents are derived from the standardized "textbooks" provided by the "Wisdom Education China" project, aiming to exercise children's physical movements, cognition, memory and expression.
Sometimes, Luo Zhilan will make some simple toys with mineral water bottles and fabrics to enrich children's play styles.
A child’s development can be seen from the brief interaction.
Professor Shi Jiannong of the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences focused on observing children's language, facial expressions and eye expressions.
"The look of your eyes is very important. For example, if you point to something, if the child's line of sight follows, this process is called joint attention, which can reflect the child's social development."
Luo Yanqian was very happy this day. She braided the sky, showing her big forehead and two rows of white teeth, and she kept waving her small hands.
The three-piece jigsaw was not difficult for her. After finishing it, she shuffled the graphics again and wanted to show it again in front of Rojland.
For each home visit, Luo Zhilan will record the child's completion on the form, and check the child's memory of the last home visit, as well as the degree of cooperation of the parents during this period.
Although Luo Yanqian's grandmother would sit and listen during the home visit, when asked if she would take her granddaughter to play games with her after the home visit, her wrinkled face squeezed a shy smile, "I won't , Can't learn these."
She is Luo Yanqian's main caregiver.
Luo Yanqian's mother went to work when her child was one and a half years old, and her father did odd jobs in the village during the day and went home at night.
The lack of parental company is not uncommon in the growth experience of children in mountain villages.
Not far from Luo Yanqian's home, the two children of another family were also Luo Zhilan's home visits.
Their grandmother cried and said that soon after the young grandson was born, his son and daughter-in-law divorced. After that, the son escaped away from work on the grounds of part-time work.
The child's mother never came back to see it again.
The grandmother not only grieves the broken family, but also regrets the more than 200,000 yuan of gifts raised for her son's marriage.
Luo Zhilan felt that in this environment, the two children needed her to fill the gap in growth.
However, during the home visit for nearly half a year, the older child would hold Luo Zhilan reluctant to let go, while the younger child was still introverted and dodged, and refused to let her hug her.
Among her 11 home visits, almost half are left-behind children, who are usually brought up by grandparents.
Luo Zhilan observed that the old man was still busy with farming at home and basically stocked his children.
Some elderly people do not know how to communicate with children and often beat and scold children.
She told them over and over again, don't beat and scold, communicate more, smile more, although the child can't speak yet, but the brain is conscious and understands.
"Fortune Crossing the Road"
Most people welcome this kind of free door-to-door scientific parenting guidance.
However, Luo Zhilan has also been behind closed doors. Some people are wondering how effective a few interactions can be?
The "Wise Education China" project was first piloted in Huachi County, Gansu Province. Huachi is one of the poorest areas in China, with 85% of the area being mountainous.
The home visit started in September 2015 and has been implemented for 5 years. During this period, the project team continued to follow up and observe the children who were intervened.
Lu Mai, vice chairman of the China Development Research Foundation, told a story that happened in Huachi.
A boy was tied to the head of a bed when he was 18 months old. His movement radius was only one rope away. The two square meters of Kang was his entire world.
This is the best way his elderly great-grandmother can come up with, not to delay farm work, but also to ensure the safety of the children.
The boy's parents were separated at the time and later divorced. Neither his grandparents were able to take care of him. Normally, he was taken care of by his great-grandmother.
During the initial examination of the "Wise Education China" project staff, he found that his development was abnormal.
In 2017, home interviewer Zhang Lingjuan found the boy. Starting from language training, he gradually taught him to recognize colors and numbers. He became more cheerful and his expression skills improved.
By the final check-up, the intelligence of the boy over 3 years old had exceeded his age.
James Heckman, a professor at the University of Chicago and a Nobel laureate in economics, once evaluated the effect of early education in Huachi, Gansu, who entered the home at the age of six to three.
According to his latest research results in 2020, 84% of children who received home visit intervention performed better than control children who did not receive home visits.
It is estimated that the improvement of the skills of participating children by home visits will increase their college enrollment rate by 38%.
These skills include children's language and cognitive skills, fine motor skills and social and emotional abilities, especially for the poorest children, the most significant impact.
"This is like giving a person the first steamed bun when he is most hungry. It is the most effective." Shi Jiannong said.
Why is early intervention so important?
Studies have shown that 87% of a person’s brain weight and 80% of his comprehensive abilities are formed in the "first 1000 days of life". At the same time, the highest economic return on human capital also comes from early investment.
Heckman once put forward the famous "Heckman curve", this declining curve shows that as the life cycle of disadvantaged children advances, the social return on investment in their human capital is decreasing.
Traditional policies often invest more funds in later interventions, such as providing vocational training, implementing adult literacy education, and criminal rehabilitation programs.
Heckman believes that the tips related to early education are simple and do not require advanced parenting theory.
For example, when you play with your child, let him see your face, accompany your child to build building blocks, draw together, and tell him stories.
This does not require a lot of money, nor a large infrastructure.
Even so, such simple communication is not possible for many rural children.
Heckman found that rich families spend more time and energy in education than poor families, and parent-child interaction is better. Therefore, government intervention in education investment for poor families is very important.
This is about a fair starting point.
A recent study by the China Development Research Foundation presented the cruel fact of the gap between the starting points of children in urban and rural areas. 90% of children in Shanghai were normal in the Denver Developmental Screening Test (used to detect developmental problems in children aged 0-6). This ratio is 66% in Huachi, Gansu, and only 43% in Qixingguan District, Bijie, Guizhou.
"An increasing number of sociological literature has put forward a convincing view that children who grow up from different family backgrounds are facing a'fortune'." In November 2018, Heckman said at a forum, "For China For left-behind children in rural areas, the departure of both parents is an important factor that causes differences in children’s abilities. It does not mean that grandmothers do not love her grandsons, it is also a matter of resources and abilities. If the caregiver that replaces parents is alone One person, low level of education, and poor energy will inevitably lead to an insufficient environment for children to grow up."
"Child development is at the core of the next phase of poverty reduction strategy"
The fact that cannot be ignored is that children in concentrated contiguous areas with poor health and education are significantly lower than the national average in terms of health and education.
In the second half of 2020, the China Development Research Foundation and the China Children’s Center formed a research team. It took 34 days to randomly select 20 poverty-stricken counties from 15 provinces and select 4 project counties from the All-China Women’s Federation and 5 projects from the foundation. The county launched a survey.
Lu Mai told reporters from China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the larger background of this investigation is anti-poverty, and hopes to fundamentally cut off the intergenerational transmission of poverty by promoting child development.
Li Shi, executive dean of the China Income Distribution Research Institute of Beijing Normal University, has done an analysis. The bottom group is more likely to pass on poverty. Children born in poor families are 48% likely to continue poverty.
"The child can't choose where he is born, but he has to bear the consequences of his birth, which is very unfair." Lu Mai said.
In Lu Mai's view, China's relative poverty problem is still very big.
"It is impossible for 600 million rural residents to achieve income fairness through fiscal transfers, and it is difficult to maintain national finances. The previous work shows that child development is the core of the next stage of poverty reduction strategy."
The survey used more advanced Chinese localized measurement tools such as physical measurement, family questionnaires, and child development screening applets, and at the same time, home visits.
The survey found that some wrong parenting methods are still widespread.
Some parents buy snacks for their children as soon as they have money, causing a large number of "five-five snacks" produced by informal manufacturers to cannibalize their children's teeth; some parents do not know how to feed and often give their children a single staple food such as noodles and steamed buns; some Parents mistakenly believe that milk powder is more nutritious than breast milk, so they leave it to boys and girls to drink breast milk. Many families lack books and toys. TVs and mobile phones have become tools for children to pass the time, and video games and short videos flood children. Childhood.
The most common observations by the staff during the survey were grandparents pulling knee-length grandchildren, or babbling babies lying in a rickety basket.
Today, the most vulnerable old people and children are left in the countryside, and young people are moving outward.
Families with better conditions choose to move to the county seat, and those who stay in the countryside are the most difficult and most needy people.
A village official in Guzhang County said that the fertility rate in the village is getting lower and lower, and it is difficult for bachelors to find a target.
In order to continue offspring, some older men will marry women with mental disorders, causing birth defects in children. Even if they give birth to healthy children, it is difficult to develop normally in such a family environment.
In Zhang County, Gansu, Sun Xiaoshu, a teacher in the Teacher Training Department of the China Children's Center, met a "running mother".
She was in elementary school and got married at the age of 19 to escape her native family.
After marriage, she had a son and a daughter. Due to financial constraints, she often broke out with her husband.
She alone took her two children to work in a factory in the county seat, and her husband was out of town.
"She lacked the awareness of raising children, did not communicate and interact, and did not bring them stationery. The children were very boring in the factory all day long. She did not realize that she ran on the road several times, but was brought back by other workers. Yes.” Sun Xiaoshu chatted with her during an investigation. Three days later, when Sun Xiaoshu went to her again, the worker said “she ran away” and left two children to be raised by her grandmother.
The survey covered 7762 children aged 0-6.
Judging from the screening results of 2,409 children aged 0-6 years in 4 project locations including Guzhang and Huachi, the children's development level in these counties is qualified, and early childhood development has been improved.
It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the "Huiyu China" for 0-3 years old, there is also "One Village, One Garden: Mountain Village Kindergarten Project" for 3-6 years old.
The latter has been piloted for many years and won the "World Education Innovation Project Award" in 2018.
But Lu Mai said that the gap between urban and rural areas is still widening, especially in children’s growth and development, emotions, cognitive skills, etc. This is related to possible genetic factors, as well as unfavorable family and social environments such as indifference, domestic violence, and drugs. .
Therefore, the development of children in poor areas still needs intervention.
"The general conclusion is that the intervention is effective." Lu Mai said.
Allocation of investment for "future risk"
The "Huiyu China" project is carried out in 11 counties across the country, including Jimunai County in Xinjiang, Guzhang County in Hunan, and Nimu County in Tibet. Some counties cover the whole county, and some cover only part of it, benefiting more than 20,000 children in total.
However, this investment is still a drop in the bucket when compared with the roughly 16 million rural children aged 0-6 in China's 832 impoverished counties.
Moreover, this experimental project is facing the most common and biggest obstacle in the promotion stage-insufficient funds.
According to data provided by the Guzhang County Government, Guzhang currently covers 303 children in early nurturing and care services for children aged 0-3, covering 293 families, accounting for 14% of the county's registered infants and young children aged 0-3.
In 2019, the Guzhang County government invested 200,000 yuan in special funds for early childhood development.
"The main problems in investment in children's development include tight funding and difficulty in sustaining investment."
According to a staff member of the Guzhang County Government, the project cost mainly comes from manpower.
Take Luo Zhilan as an example. The monthly salary of a home visitor is 1,000 yuan, and each visit to a family is 30 yuan.
This number is not attractive to young women in their 20s in the average village, and their income from working outside is even more impressive.
In addition, as a new profession, home interviewers have no social insurance, and the lack of stable protection has exacerbated the loss of personnel.
The funds for the "Wisdom Education China" project usually come from financial support from the China Development Research Foundation or counterpart assistance units, plus special government investment.
In many cases, once the external financial support is lost, the project will shrink.
"About 16 million children aged 0-6 in my country’s poverty alleviation areas live in the villages, and a considerable number of them have early developmental delays, which is a prominent manifestation of the unbalanced and inadequate development of our country." Lu Mai suggested, targeting the villages aged 3-6. For children’s pre-school education, the central government should continue to increase investment, guarantee funding, and further tilt policies to the village level.
For children aged 0-3, he suggested that the state set up special funds from poverty alleviation funds.
Each person invests 3,000 yuan per year, which can generate tens of times of lifelong income.
In the short term, a good education is the most urgent need of a family.
According to the preliminary results of the survey, parents in poverty-stricken areas generally hope that their children will get a better education, but three-quarters of them suffer from lack of correct education guidance.
Cong Zhongxiao, secretary of the Party Committee of the China Children's Center, suggested that family education support services for infants under 3 years old should be included in government public services.
It is hoped that more funds will be invested in children aged 0-3 during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, especially those in poor areas.
Researcher Han Fengqin of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences and doctoral student Cao Rui in a paper entitled "Building a Public Service System for Early Childhood Development: Theoretical Discussion and Practical Choices" suggested that financial resources should be allocated in advance for future risks.
For underdeveloped areas or disadvantaged children, special early childhood development comprehensive service projects can be set up. The central and local governments jointly assume financial power and expenditure responsibilities, and appropriately strengthen central expenditure responsibilities.
"Pre-allocation is more cost-effective than redistribution. Investing in children is equivalent to investing in the future of the country. Public investment in early childhood development is the pre-allocation of public resources to public resources. Pre-investing public funds in early childhood development can better balance fairness and efficiency. ." They pointed out.
Lu Mai has advocated for early childhood development in rural areas on many occasions.
He emphasized: “Don’t underestimate this group. Every year 2.5 million people enter the labor market. In 20 years, when this group of people grow up and leave the village, there will be 50 million laborers. They are healthy, mentally healthy, and linguistic. The 50 million people who can reach the basic level of cognition are still 50 million people who are psychologically distorted and have insufficient abilities in various aspects. This is of vital importance to everyone and the country."
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Yi Source: China Youth Daily
Version 06, January 13, 2021