China Exemplary Educators 2020

Ding Haiyan

Source: www.moe.gov.cn
2020-09-10

Ding Haiyan is an ordinary teacher at a village boarding school in Malan, Xunyi County, one of the officially designated poverty-stricken counties in Shaanxi province. For more than three decades, and has been working to sow the seeds of knowledge in village children with love, illuminating their path of intellectual and moral development, to open the way for them to escape rural poverty in the future. Since she first taught at the village, over 40 students have gone to college, the largest number among all villages in Xunyi County. For 30 years, she has made the school her home, living by the motto of “leaving no one behind” with dedication. She says that the most fulfilling and joyful thing in life is to be with her students, and see them move up the years until they can finally leave the village.