BASIC EDUCATION
Muqu Village School
Following on from previous assistance given to the Muqu Village
School (from 2000 and 2004, for the establishment of a tent school), we provided funds in 2004 for the construction of permanent classrooms in Tibetan
architectural style. The government simultaneously built the student dormitories and
teacher's offices. We have also agreed to provide further assistance for the construction
of a kitchen and dining room as well as a school toilet. There are now 45
students and 4 teachers. The school is also used as a Community Centre for
meetings and other community-wide purposes.
Yaqu Village School
In Yaqu village, following the return of an experienced
community leader who aims to improve the standard of the school, Plateau
Perspectives has agreed to lend its support. The Education Bureau financed the
repair of the students' dormitory buildings, and Plateau Perspectives has built
a new kitchen and dining room. This was felt necessary in order to encourage
more parents to send their children to the boarding school. Several monitoring
visits have been made, and on one of these it was decided that Plateau
Perspectives would also help improve the children's living conditions by
providing quilts, in preparation for the cold season ahead.
With some of the best village doctors in the region from Yaqu
village, it is likely that Plateau Perspectives will equally support the
construction of a community health centre in this location, and thus provide the
basis for another Community Centre.
Teacher Training
Workshops
Teacher training workshops have previously been conducted, in 2001 and 2002,
in cooperation with
Friends of
Nature and
Upper Yangtze Organization. Specific topics included
reasons to conserve biological diversity; the geographic context of grasslands
in China and the world; the value of China's grasslands (economic and other
reasons); how plants grow and the effects of grazing; the relationship between
animal diversity and plant diversity; keystone species; and vegetation ecology in
arid lands. New teaching methodologies were also introduced and many of these
have been
adopted by the school teachers.
Environmental Videos
A number of videos (VHSs), VCDs and DVDs on conservation and sustainable development (approved
by CCTV, translated
and distributed in China by
EETPC)
are available to lend to local NGOs and schools. Several copies have also been distributed,
with help from the Women's Federation, to several counties in Shannan Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region.
Environmental Comic
Book
A comic book for children produced by
Kunde Foundation includes
one story designed by
Plateau Perspectives on the value of preserving shrubland to maintain people's
quality of life. Copies may be ordered directly from Kunde Foundation.
