Chinese Kids Forced to Schlep Their Own Desks to School

Think it’s a pain bringing all of your books to school each day? Imagine if you had to bring your own desk!

Located within Hubei province of China, people in Shunhe Town of Macheng city face a crisis each year: how to get their own school desk to the school itself. With nearly 5,000 students and only 2,000 desks supplied by China’s Project Hope, a charity organization designed to help impoverished school children, roughly 3,000 school children must face the task of trying to get their own desk to work on to the school for use.

Don’t think you can get the desk there yourself? Ask a friend of family member to help! In the picture above the grandmother of student Wang Ziqi helps carry the desk to be used for the school year to the school yard – roughly only 300 feet away, but still quite a walk for an old woman to carry such a heavy load.

Some lucky people who are able to afford a scooter can have a break and tie their desk (and sometimes their chairs and other necessities) to the “family ride” to get it to school.

For some school children it could be worse – in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang during particularly cold winters when it can drop to -30 degrees Fahrenheit students are asked to bring their own personal coal heaters to school to they don’t accidentally get frostbite while sitting in the classroom.

Just remember that the next time you’re complaining about what your classroom might be like this year – things could always be worse. At least you didn’t have to carry to school the same desk your parents used at the same school 20 years ago!