Governments and allies rallying round to fulfil Rewi Alley dream

Press, 24 February 1987, Page 21

Governments and allies rallying round to fulfil Rewi Alley dream

By

KEN COATES

It is the Year of the Rabbit in China; it also looks like becoming Rewi Alley’s Year.

As the veteran New Zealander approaches 90, New Zealand support is being organised for a dream that looks like becoming one of the most unusual development projects in the vast, backward nation. New Zealand Government assistance is planned for a school teaching agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry, as well as an experimental farm at Shandan, in remote north-west China.

The target is to provide expertise for reviving the arid, desert-like areas of western Gansu province, and a model teaching centre for other impoverished regions in western China. The first New Zealand teacher, Tom Newnham, of Auckland, who speaks Chinese, will leave soon for a six-month period teaching English at the new school.

The school’s site, 420 km northwest of the provincial capital, Lanzhou, is where Rewi Alley ran his history-making Bailie school in the 19405. There he trained young peasants to work in co-operative factories in courses based on half-a-day’s work and half-a-day’s study. Alley has gained official backing in China for his dream, a new school. A four-storied block of 26 classrooms is nearing completion.

A Rangiora man, Courtney Archer, who worked with Alley for six years at Shandan in the stormy years, 1946 to 1953, recently visited the region. He first went to China in early 1945 and worked with a Friends (Quaker) service unit, supplying medical equipment and drugs. Rewi Alley’s mother and sisters had told him about Shandan, so while on leave he went there. “I was impressed and thought it the most meaningful work I had seen in China,” he recalls.

“I decided to taught at

the Bailie school, and acted as Rewi’s secretary dealing, among other things, with foreign visitors, journalists, and sources of funding from the United States, Canada, Britain, and New Zealand.”

Alley was head of the school for 10 years, but eventually it was shifted to Lanzhou and adapted to meet the needs of the burgeoning oil industry at Gansu.

During the Cultural Revolution, from 1966 to 1976, the educational ideas on which the school was founded were denigrated, and in 1983 an earthquake levelled the old Shandan school’s mud-brick buildings. Today, a China advisory committee of provincial and national officials, Rewi Alley, and former teachers and students of the old school are working on a modern project at Shandan to meet current needs.

Courtney Archer went to Shandan to see the progress made and discuss future development. On the bare, exposed site, he found the classroom

block well under way, although work will have been halted by the harsh northern winter.

He says some classes in accounting and tractor repair were held in nearby buildings for workers from small industries and farms. They were 20-day courses, but lacked teaching aids, and did not include practical work experience. But it could be said teaching had started. The Gansu provincial government has made a grant of $1 million for classrooms, hostels, an auditorium, kitchen and dining rooms, boiler room, well and water tower, truck garage, compound wall, and a gatehouse. But current estimates show this work will cost another $20,000.

As a result of Courtney Archer’s talks in Shandan, and a realisation by officials of the aims of the project, 40 hectares of land for a school farm have been given by Shandan County.

Rewi Alley had made it clear that there must be strong emphasis on agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry; students should come from west Gansu; support should be sought from all sources, including overseas; and students should undertake a five-year course. This means land for practical projects such as new crops, tree-growing trials, and animal husbandry.

The site for the farm was formerly occupied by a teachers’ college, skm from the school. It has a deep well capable of irrigating two-thirds of the area, electricity, and pumping equipment needing repair. Much of the land, says Courtney Archer, is terraced. Some trees are growing but others have died because of a lack of water. Buildings suitable for workshops and living quarters need repairs.

The area provjdes opportunity

for dry land and irrigated farming, though the climate is demanding. Annual rainfall is only 197 mm, and the temperature ranges from 20 degrees C in the summer to minus 11.4 C in winter. The altitude is 2000 metres, and there are only 138 frost-free days a year. A successful use of the dry land for agriculture and forestry will provide a challenge to the school, adds Mr Archer.

Even so, an air of realism exists about the school farm. North-west of the Yellow River, Gansu is bare, eroded, and barren. Fierce dust-storms sweep the region. Where there is no water, there is desert, but agriculture is possible at the oases. Courtney Archer has a theory that the current plate movement of the earth causing earthquakes is not helping the region, and the climate is changing for the worse. But techniques are being worked out to combat erosion and the spread of deserts. A nursery for timber, shelter, and fruit trees, as well as shrubs and plants suitable for erosion control, is recommended. Pasture and tree seed could be sought from friends and organisations overseas, says Mr Archer, and foreign experts could be invited for short terms. A headmaster and an assistant, both old Bailie school students, have been appointed to the new school. Negotiations are under way to have the school recognised as an agricultural training centre, with administrative and staffing support. Five specialists from North West University in Lanzhou visited the school to help staff develop a syllabus and select textbooks. Tom Newnham expects about 150 students aged from 15 to 17 to begin a fiveyear course next month, though all classrooms will not be finished.

The 60-year-old Auckland teacher and activist grew up in Riccarton. He spent four years teaching in Hong Kong has

long wanted to work in China. He says Rewi Alley has had an important influence on his life. After a visit to China in 1966, he wrote a series of educational booklets which had a big sale to New Zealand schools. But it was a visit in 1985, when he discovered that a party of 100 Australian high school pupils were bound for China to practise their Chinese, that turned him towards teaching the language in this country. Last year, he taught Chinese to 12 pupils at Hillary College and Auckland Girls’ Grammar School. This year, the total for the two schools has increased to 60, with a decline in the popularity of French. A third school, Westlake Girls’ High School is starting classes.

Tom Newnham is keen to improve his Chinese and has been studying tapes sent from Rangiora from a Gansu man studying at the Forest Research Institute. He will also help a Chinese teacher in Shandan to write a textbook on ecology, and hopes to be able to advise on ways New Zealand can giye

further help with the project,

The New Zealand China Friendship Society has raised $30,000 in its appeal for the Shandan school, and the Government is considering subsidising the amount. Two walking tractors have been purchased as well as furniture, according to the society’s president, Jack Ewen, of Auckland. Several companies have made donations.

The society is organising a shipment of goods, including stoves, books, and surplus D.S.I.R. equipment. Funding has been promised by an American organisation, World Education Incorporated, of Boston. A visit to China is planned by the deputy Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, within the next couple of months. The Government may use this opportunity to demonstrate New Zealand’s appreciation of Rewi Alley’s work in China and make a contribution to the Shandan project Arrangements could also be made for teachers and agricultural experts to spend periods at the school and on the experimental farm.