In China, 8.4 per cent of the population is an ethnic minority. Among them, many children struggle to learn because they are not taught in their indigenous language, their culture is not effectively utilised in teaching and learning, and their teachers are not equipped with adequate skills to help them sail through the difficulties in learning. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

To ensure quality education for each ethnic minority child, and help them to improve their learning performance and strengthen their cultural identity, China’s Ministry of Education and UNICEF launched the Mobile Educational Training and Resource Unit (METRU) project in Tengchong and Jinghong towns in Yunnan Province in late 2011. With support from Porsche, the Yunnan project expanded on the experiences of the onsite guidance to teachers in the Sichuan and Gansu METRU projects, which were initiated to cope with earthquake-disrupted education challenges in those areas. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

The Yunnan METRU project integrates local ethnic features and explores Language Sensitive and Culture Appropriate Pedagogy. The project provides indigenous language teaching, diversified teaching approaches and essential education resources to the project schools as a demonstration of the changes in learning outcomes that can be achieved when ethnic children first learn in their mother tongue. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

Through the project, rural teachers receive training and support from resource teacher teams who visit the schools regularly. In Tengchong, a team of 90 resource teachers have provided onsite training sessions and conduct demonstrative lessons for more than 1,000 rural teachers from 135 schools in the mountainous areas. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

Jiang Qi, the project’s county coordinator (above), says the resource teachers visit rural schools at least three times a week. It takes them three hours to reach the remotest schools. When it rains, the road becomes slippery, and the resource teachers must abandon their car and walk to the school. Through the project’s guidance and support, rural teachers’ teaching methods have changed. “The teachers used to stick to textbooks and the tasks defined in the syllabus, but now when preparing for lectures, they put children at the centre of all teaching activities,” says Jiang. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

To help ethnic minority children learn in Mandarin, Total Physical Response (TPR), an innovative language teaching method, was introduced into the rural classrooms. It allows students to respond to teacher’s commands with whole-body actions. At a Grade One class in Shuicheng Complete Primary School (above), TPR is used to teach the Chinese phonetic alphabet. The school has 508 students, of which 45 per cent are ethnic minority, mostly from the Lisu. Teachers report that the TPR approach is helpful because they often struggle when teaching the Chinese language to ethnic minority students because it is not their mother tongue. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

At a mathematics class in the school (above), the use of songs, teaching aids and games engages students in activities and helps them to learn more effectively. Baseline studies conducted at the beginning of the project found a gap in mathematics performance between ethnic minority students and students of Han ethnicity, attributing it to the language barrier and the lack of early childhood education. ©UNICEF/China/2016/Yang Jingjie

Shaohuiba Primary School, located near the China-Myanmar border, only has 49 children, all Lisu. The school’s head teacher, Yu Yingfang (above), has been teaching at the school for 14 years. A Lisu, she knows how difficult it is for ethnic minority children to learn in their second language. In the past, teachers explained lessons repeatedly and asked students to memorize and exercise from time to time because they had no better idea for teaching. Thanks to the project, Yu now uses diversified methods to teach the Chinese language, incorporating body language, painting and dancing. She wishes such a project was available when she was a student. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

Local cultures, sports and art forms are incorporated into the school curriculum, with project assistance. Children perform their traditional dances and sing their traditional songs at school. It makes them proud, they say, which builds their confidence in class. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

Since the METRU project was launched in Yunnan Province, more than 50,000 students and 2,800 teachers in Tengchong and Jinghong have benefited. The students have become more engaged in class activities and are much happier at school, they say. This is best reflected in their improved academic performance. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China

The project is soon to make an even greater impact nationwide. The onsite support strategy to teachers in the METRU project has been adopted by the 2015–2020 National Rural Village Teacher Support Action Plan and will benefit 3.3 million rural village teachers. Photo: Courtesy of Porsche China