Beyond academics

According to the Ministry of Education, the program, which was launched in 2006, has led to the hiring of more than 1 million university graduates to teach at rural schools in central and western provincial-level regions. Through it, another 37,000 university graduates are expected to be hired to teach in the regions this year.

The central government has invested 71 billion yuan ($11 billion) in the program, and more than 95 percent of the teachers work at schools in townships or villages, the ministry said.

The ministry said the program will focus on hiring more physical education, music, art and IT teachers for rural schools, as teachers of these subjects are sorely lacking.

Ning said students in mountainous regions have little contact with the outside world, and some of them have never left their hometowns.

They are also very introverted; they lack parental love, and their grandparents are often not very talkative, so many of the students also do not like or know how to talk with others, he said.

There is a great imbalance in terms of educational resources and horizons between the rural students and their urban counterparts, Ning added, so the volunteer teachers from other regions can expand the children's perspectives and give them a better sense of the outside world. In turn, they will become less timid and have more confidence.

The principal, who was also born in a village in Hengyang, said he does not want rural children to just focus on academics as he was forced to more than 20 years ago.

"Schools and parents should pay more attention to building their character and make them more confident and outgoing," he said.

The students participate in a variety of activities at school, which has led them to develop various hobbies instead of just playing on their smartphones in their spare time.

Besides the volunteer music, art and reading classes, they also play basketball on a 10-member team formed by Ning, who trains them every day. The school's PE classes are also helping the students become more tenacious, the principal said.