Wang Wanjun gives a Chinese lesson at Shanwang Primary School in Longcheng, Gansu province. [Photo/China Daily]

The pupil's confidence has grown and he has led the school team in a kung fu demonstration watched by hundreds of villagers.

Zhang said, "The lack of PE classes may have deprived some rural kids of the opportunity to show their athletic prowess."

He added that village pupils now embrace outdoor activities enthusiastically, but before he arrived to take the classes, the sports grounds and equipment lay idle, covered in dust.

Wang Fengfeng, a music teacher, has been warmly welcomed by his village pupils.

"Unlike their urban peers, rural children have found that the school courses are their only chance to get a feeling for the arts. Art and music relieve them of stress and boredom after they have studied for a long time."

Wang Liwei, a former researcher at the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said poor personal hygiene, along with the failure of parents to sufficiently supervise the television programs their children watch and the electronic products they use, is "depriving rural children of good health".

"It is important for rural kids to take art, music and PE lessons, especially PE," she added.

A survey of 253 schools in poorer areas of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces by the Rural Education Action Program, launched in 2012 by Stanford University in the United States, found that 24 percent of children in fourth and fifth grades in these areas have myopia. Many also have parasitic roundworms.

As more and better teachers travel to village schools by bus, the number of pupils has risen. For example, at Zhaoshan village school, 12 kilometers and a 30-minute drive from Longcheng, the number of pupils has risen to 40 this year, from just four in 2016.

Wang Yaping, a mother of two, moved from the village to the town in 2011 so that her children could go to kindergarten. Her husband was working in a big city, and there is no kindergarten in the village.