AdilanClub : Students risk lives to get an education

Do You Like This Story?

THE only dangers that Singaporean students face on their journey to school would be inconsiderate drivers and an unpredictable public train service.

However, students in China and Indonesia, risk life and limb daily to get an education travelling over cliffs, ravines and a broken bridge.

In China, the children of Hongde village, Shuicheng county, Southwest China's Guizhou province also tempt fate in their journey to school.


>Link Info : Education

They cross the Xuandongzi Canyon via a basket-ropeway. The children used a ropeway to cross the 80-metre gap between two mountains over the 140-metre canyon.

The students squeeze themselves into a basket attached to the ropeway that is pulled by people on the opposite side of the canyon.

These are not the only students in China that have to endure a treacherous expedition to school.

The children from Pili, a rural village in the Xinjiang region, travel to a school that is more than 200km away.

Their journey to school consists of 80 km of narrow mountain trails, dangerous cliffs and turbulent rivers.

Every year, at the start of school, teachers from the school will make a trip to the village. With help from the village officials, they will escort school kids along a perilous journey to the boarding school, before escorting them back at the end of every semester.

Closer to home the children from Lebak, Indonesia, cross a bridge that rivals Indiana Jones' exploits in The Temple of Doom.

A disintegrating wood-and-wire suspension bridge that hangs over the Ciberang River stands between the children and school, everyday.

The children cling on to it for dear life lest they fall prey to the rapid waters that holidaymakers use for their white-water rafting pleasure.

Suddenly, getting stuck in the train does not seem so bad after all.