China's poverty eradication campaigns have focused on improving education along with other measures. Leading this effort to eliminate absolute poverty, President Xi Jinping has repeatedly said that education is key in breaking the inter-generational transmission of poverty.

He especially cares about rural education, saying many times that "Children living in poor areas must be ensured fair access to quality education."

On February 14, 2015, Fuzhou Hope Primary School in Yangjialing, Yan'an City, Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, welcomed a special and familiar guest.

Xi visits a primary school at Yangjialing, Yan'an, Shaanxi Province, on Feb 14, 2015. (Photos: Xinhua)

Xi, on an inspection tour of Shaanxi Province, came to the school and talked with teachers in the winter sunshine.

This was Xi's second visit to the school. Before that, he had corresponded with its principal and students through letters.

Two letters that span a long time remain prominently displayed on the school bulletin board. One was signed on March 4, 1995.

It was a letter sent by Xi who was the then Secretary of Communist Party of China (CPC) Fuzhou Municipal Committee. Fuzhou was the capital city of East China’s Fujian Province where he launched the "1,000 enterprises to build 1,000 schools" charity campaign.

A Fuzhou enterprise and its employees donated 520,000 yuan ($79,500) to rebuild the primary school in Yangjialing, first built in 1974.

In the letter, Xi wrote to the principal: "I'm delighted to have the opportunity to connect with you through the donation. Helping old revolutionary and poverty-stricken areas to develop education and solving the difficulty of student enrollment are important ways to achieve common prosperity and also meaningful parts of poverty alleviation in the new era."

On May 21, 2008, children from the new school wrote a letter to then-Vice President Xi Jinping, reporting on their daily learning, living conditions and donations to the Wenchuan earthquake disaster area in Sichuan Province.

Ten days later, they received a reply in which Xi urged them to "carry forward the Yan'an spirit, study diligently, grow up healthy and strive to become successors to the mission of socialism."

In November 2009, Xi visited the school during an inspection tour of Shaanxi Province. A group photo was taken and hangs on the school bulletin board today.

In 2015, Xi visited Fuzhou Hope Primary School again.

As he was about to leave, Xi told everyone that education was of great importance.

"To rid old revolutionary base areas of poverty, we must do a good job in education and never let our children lose at the starting line," he said.

Xi also said that national funds would be put towards education, especially basic education in old revolutionary base areas.

He once talked about the "Matthew effect" whereby children who go to school with a slight advantage based on their home background make quicker progress and draw away from their peers from less advantaged backgrounds, leading to a widening gap in achievement.

The poorer the place, Xi noted, the more difficult it was to get educated. The poorer the place, the more necessary it was to get educated. The less education people recieve, the poorer lives they usually end up with.

Xi has stressed the role of education in poverty alleviation.

In December 2012 during a visit to Fuping County in North China’s Hebei Province, Xi said, "Conquer the illiteracy before you conquer poverty... For our next generation to live a happy life, they ought to be well educated so that they can pursue a completely different self-development."

In April 2019, Xi visited the Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County deep in the mountains of Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality.

Xi talks with students at a primary school in Zhongyi Township of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing, April 15, 2019.

Presiding over a symposium on addressing prominent issues for poor rural people including food, clothing, compulsory education, basic medical services and safe housing, Xi enquired about the salaries of rural teachers.

"Education is the key to the revitalization and sustainable development of rural areas," Xi said.

In April 2020 during an inspection tour of Shaanxi Province, Xi looked into the classroom of a primary school in Pingli County, Ankang City, and asked the children about their life and study.

Xi inspects poverty alleviation work in a primary school of Laoxian Township, Pingli County of the city of Ankang, Shaanxi Province, April 21, 2020.

He stressed the need to promote the integrated development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas, narrow the gap in educational resources, promote educational equity and cut off the inter-generational transmission of poverty.

Xi believes in not simply getting rid of material poverty, but also poverty of thinking. This is the guiding ideology of China's poverty alleviation work.

The number of students who dropped out of compulsory education in 832 national-level poverty-stricken counties across the country has been reduced from 290,000 at the beginning of the establishment of the records to 23,000 at the end of 2019. Among them, the number of registered poor students was reduced from 150,000 to 6,000.

(Translated by Xie Huiwen and edited by Sun Tianren and Huang Jingjing; Original story from CCTV)