Students assemble in the playground before lunch. [Photo by Pengnian/for chinadaily.com.cn]

At 12:25, with only five minutes left for lunch, Zhu Zhihao, a grade one student, sips every mouthful of the soup. His teacher, Mao Jumei, waits beside him patiently.

Mao has been working here for five years. She sent her son to the boarding school after her husband went to a big city for better work. "I'm not just here to work, but also take care of my child", she said.

Xu Nianhua said, the reason they picked the 22 teachers from parent recommendations is because compared to others, parents might know more about their children, both mentally and physically. Since most of the students here are from the migrant background family, and their emotions require more care.

For Mao, her son is just among the many rural families in which fathers are working in big cities.

Since 2010, t he Ministry of Education has spent at least 61.8 billion yuan ($10 billion) renovating school buildings in rural areas.

After that, the boarding schools started providing better support for disadvantaged children from rural and migrant backgrounds.

In 2007 Xiangdong Elementary School became a boarding school, and the number of enrolled students had increased to 1,178, compared to only 200 in 2006.