English Education for Rural Children in China

As the fall semester begins, we are pleased to share that our online English interventions have continued to play a central role in 2025, empowering thousands of disadvantaged students across China with essential 21st-century skills.

From January to September 2025, our online English programs reached 2,663 students nationwide. To support this effort, we recruited and trained over 280 dedicated volunteers, who together delivered more than 2,050 interactive lessons. Our students came from a wide range of provinces and municipalities, including Henan, Shanghai, Ningxia, Yunnan, Guangxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangdong, Tianjin, Beijing, Hubei, Shandong, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia — demonstrating the truly national reach of our programs.

In the online classroom, volunteers and teachers used a variety of engaging activities — picture book reading, text-image dialogues, games, group competitions, and songs — to make English learning dynamic and enjoyable. These interactive methods not only helped students practice vocabulary, sentences, and dialogues, but also fostered confidence and enthusiasm for speaking English and encouraged them to apply their learning to real-life situations.

Building on the success of our pilot during the 2025 winter break, we expanded our intensive Phonics Courses over the summer, helping students strengthen foundational pronunciation rules. This improved their phonemic awareness, vocabulary acquisition, and reading fluency. In addition, our English Corner sessions have continued to attract more middle school students, giving them valuable opportunities to practice oral communication in informal conversations with volunteers.

We are especially excited to have welcomed more than 2,300 students into the fall 2025 semester. This growth reflects both the demand for high-quality English education among disadvantaged communities and the dedication of our volunteers and supporters.

None of this would be possible without the commitment of our volunteers, the generosity of our donors, and the encouragement of our partners and supporters. Together, we are giving children across China the tools, confidence, and opportunities they need to succeed. Thank you for being an essential part of this journey.

Links:

• Read more about our programs on our website

As the spring semester draws to a close, we are pleased to share updates on our progress during the first half of 2025. Our online initiatives have continued to be a cornerstone of our work, allowing us to deliver vital English education to disadvantaged children across 17 provinces in China, including Henan, Shanghai, Ningxia, Yunnan, Guangxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Fujian, Shaanxi, Gansu, Guangdong, Tianjin, Beijing, Hubei, Shandong, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia.

Our School Videolink Program is now active in 31 rural schools, reaching more than 1,945 students. Meanwhile, our Home Classroom Program, which provides small-group after-school English classes to students learning from their homes, has supported 625 students. In total, over 2,570 under-served students have participated in one of our online English programs so far this year, thanks to the dedication of the 267 trained volunteers who deliver engaging and impactful lessons on a regular basis.

Our curriculum remains focused on interactive and student-centered learning. Using phonics, stories, songs, and picture books, we aim to build students’ vocabulary, sentence structure, and speaking confidence in a fun and encouraging environment.

One of the highlights of 2025 so far was the launch of an intensive Phonics Course during the winter break. Volunteers helped students grasp foundational pronunciation rules, improving their phonemic awareness, vocabulary acquisition, and reading ability. Stepping Stones’ pre- and post-course assessments showed significant improvements in students’ pronunciation accuracy and overall language confidence.

We were also pleased to see growing participation from middle school students in our online English Corner sessions, where informal conversations with volunteers helped strengthen their oral communication skills.

None of these achievements would be possible without the hard work and generosity of our volunteers, donors, and supporters. Thank you for being part of this journey and for continuing to help us expand educational opportunities for children across China.

Links:

• Read more about our programs on our website