John Wotherspoon recruits pupils on street in South China

A foreign teacher, who works in Zhaoqing of Guangdong province, discovered during walking that many children of migrant workers had no opportunity to go to school and spent all day wandering around. So he came up with the idea of running a learning place. By now the place has had 80 students. They were all recruited by this foreigner, who they call "Ah John".

"Big nose" recruits students on the street

According to a report by Yangcheng Evening Paper, at the foot of the Beiling mountain in Guangdong Zhaoqing are gathered many migrant workers from Guizhou and Sichuan province. Some of their children have reached the school age and yet are still spending all day wondering around. Seven-year-old Yang Penghui is one of them.

One day a foreigner with a big nose appeared and spoke to him in stiff Chinese: "Good morning, little boy! Are you at school?"

"No." answered 7-year-old little Penghui staring at him, little bit shy and little bit nervous.

"Do you want to go to school?" "big nose" continued. Little Penhui revealed a look of yearning while he nodded his head. But not a moment passed before he began to shake his head knowing that with no spare money it was impossible for his parents to send him to school.

"It is free of charge." "big nose" seemed to know his mind.

Penhui's father Yang Xiuzhan was doubtful when he heard of it. To try their luck he brought little Penhui to the learning center set up by "Ah John" on September 1 last year. By then he began to believe that "it is really free! Even the tuition and textbooks are free of charge. And it is possible to learn something."

Students call him teacher Hu

"Ah John" is called John David Wotherspoon. He is an Australian, who came to Hong Kong more than ten years ago. He learned to speak Cantonese and mandarin, though not very fluently. In 2001 a school in Zhaoqing employed him as a foreign teacher. He seems amicable to the author. "Ah John" also has a Chinese name - Hu Songheng. So the students and parents also affectionately call him teacher Hu.

During leisure time he often strolls around the Beiling mountain near the school. He discovered that many children of migrant workers often spend all day playing. These children failed to go to school mostly because of the poor financial situation in their families. Therefore he conceived an idea of running a learning place, where these children could study and play. But how could he make these boys and girls aware of the existence of such a free learning place? Ah John used the most "dumb" method - he asked them one by one on the street. Actually this was also the most effective method since those migrant workers and their children would never look at those "student recruitment advertisings".

Mouth-to-ear passing-on brought in 80 pupils

Ren Daxian is Yang Xiuzhang's fellow townsman from Guizhou. He brought his two children to the learning center after he heard of the news. In this way the news was passed on from one person to ten, and then to a hundred. The learning center has had 80 enrolled students.

However, Ah John said he has to make visit to the home of the student who wants to study there to make sure they indeed need help. "They are encouraged to attend a regular school if their financial ability allow them to do so."

Actually, Ah John's work has experienced three stages. Earlier he had aided the study of three pupils. Later on he discovered that many children need help but he could not help them all at once with money. So Ah John successively rented three sites to let these children study and play. On last September 1 with the help of some HK friends Ah John was finally able to set up this more regular learning center.

Brought in volunteer help from friends

The learning center is a two-storied house with four rooms. Three of them are used as classroom. The rooms are equipped with blackboards and TV sets. Glued to the walls are drawings for Chinese and English learning. With desks and chairs lined up neatly the rooms look no different from normal classrooms. According to teacher Kang, who is in charge of the daily management of the center, the center currently has 80 students with their ages ranging from 3 to 14. All the curriculums from kindergarten to grade four are available here. Since there are too many students in relation to classrooms first grade students have to be divided into two groups during class.

Ah John also has teaching job in his original school. So he can only come in spare time. Therefore he asked three HK friends for their volunteer help. The day the author visited the center there were an Italian and a Brazilian teacher working there as volunteers. So "the teaching specialty here is the English language. The kids were quick in learning English and they are very good at it!" Besides, the center recruited three local teachers to teach Chinese and math and so on.

Wanting kids to attend regular schools

As the number of students grows operation cost is also growing. The monthly outlay including expenses such as housing rent is about five to six thousand yuan. As learned the money come mainly from contributions by Ah John's friends in Hong Kong. Most of Ah John's earning from his teaching job in Zhaoqing is also spent on the learning center.

Some believe that Ah John must be very rich. But the author noticed a big crack at the bottom of one of Ah John's shoes. He has his lunch and super almost always by eating fast food at a nearby restaurant, which costs no more than three to five yuan. Ah John's greatest wish is that these 80 kids could one day attend a regular school.

By People's Daily Online