Costly volunteer teachers tours spark controversy
Pricey volunteer tours that recruit middle school students to Daliangshan in Sichuan Province, once among China's most impoverished regions, have raised controversy for having local students cooperate in classes and filming to boost the participants' personal experiences.
Travel companies have started selling Seven-Day Volunteer Tours, taking middle school students under 18 from across the country to Daliangshan to serve as "volunteer teachers," with a registration fee exceeding 10,000 yuan (US$1,377), and accommodation in star-rated hotels.
During the event, the participants will teach the children of Daliangshan and visit local villages.
A travel company advertises a seven-day teaching support study tour for 10,980 yuan.
The tours have raised concerns about whether they are truly volunteer teaching or a new profit-making strategy disguised as charity.
Long-term volunteer teachers in Daliangshan criticize these activities as overly commercialized. They argue that volunteer teachers need to provide long-term companionship to the children, rather than having the children cooperate in classes and filming, for the volunteers only to leave hurriedly after a few days. This, they claim, is more of a disturbance to the children.
Children in Daliangshan make their way to school.
The education department of Liangshan Prefecture has initiated relevant investigations, making a crackdown mainly on the commercial activities of so-called volunteer teaching tours.
Liangshan Prefecture has required each county to inspect the situation of such tours since January 2023, focusing on the situation of the dispatching party, recruitment of personnel, and whether participants were charged fees.
In addition, organizations and individuals involved in commercial teaching tours would be blacklisted and no longer accepted for teaching applications. In principle, each county or city should not accept short-term teaching programs of less than one semester, avoid teaching activities during winter and summer vacations, and not conduct "public welfare activities" in the name of "teaching support" with any social organizations or individuals.
On June 12, Jimu News reported that two well-known educational agencies were organizing Seven-Day Volunteer Tours in Daliangshan during the summer vacation.
A page of the Daliangshan Charity Volunteering Teaching Camp is targeted at "volunteers" between the ages of 10 and 16.
On one of the travel companies' page, a promotional photo shows a child teaching English to other children in Daliangshan.
A staff member from the company told Jimu News that the tour is generally referred to as a rural education support activity or study tour, not volunteer teaching, which requires long-term residence. The event has age limits, and those over the limit may not take part.
Participants can earn public service hours and study tour certificates. Study tours are more about experiencing local life, with good arrangements for food, lodging, and travel, and staying in local high-quality hotels.
"If you have public service hours, you may have priority when applying to be a volunteer for future events, but it's unlikely to earn extra points for exams," the staff member said.
Another company's event details state that the Sichuan Daliangshan Public Service Teaching Camp requires participants aged 10 to 16 and also includes pre-departure qualification training, with participants staying in fine hotels.
This schedule of one study tour
Their ads feature poorly dressed children with messy and greasy hair studying in dilapidated classrooms.
In reality, Liangshan was officially lifted out of poverty in November 2020, with significant changes in various aspects. According to CCTV.com, Sanhe Village in Zhaojue County, deep in Daliangshan, was once a poor village where people of the Yi ethnic group lived in simple, low mud houses for generations.
Now, all towns and villages in the prefecture have surfaced roads, unified relocation settlement points have been planned and constructed in towns, and over 200 households in Sanhe Village have moved into new homes with water and electricity. In recent years, Liangshan Prefecture has also implemented education poverty alleviation projects, building over 600 standard township central schools and equipping each village with kindergartens, allowing rural children to receive the same education as those in the cities.
Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, has implemented education poverty alleviation projects.
Xiao Liu (a pseudonym), who has been a volunteer teacher in Daliangshan for many years, told Jimu News that short-term volunteer teaching tours are very commercialized, leaving a poor impression on him. While the teaching may benefit local children to some extent, the programs require children to cooperate in classes and filming and end after a few days, disrupting regular teaching schedules.
Moreover, volunteer teachers need to provide companionship to the children. "Teaching support activities should primarily benefit the local children, not use them for show or profit," Xiao Liu said.
Xiao Liu added that some schools in Daliangshan lack long-term volunteer teachers but many of the photos used in online promotions by the travel companies are old or deliberately staged. Currently, many buildings have been constructed locally, and standard schools no longer have mud houses.
