This year, Zhang Guimei sent 150 female students to college from a free all-girls high school she had founded in 2008 in southwest China's deep mountains. For the past 13 years, a total of 1,954 female students (graduate) from this school, the first and only one of its kind in the country."To educate a girl is to change the destiny(命运) of three (generation)," Zhang said. 64-year-old teacher from southwest China's Yunnan Province was presented the July 1 Medal by Xi Jinping at a ceremony in Beijing on Tuesday. Because of her efforts to improve female education in China, more girls can change their destiny.When the People's Republic of China (found) in 1949, female illiteracy(文盲) was much higher than that of their male counterparts. In the 1950s, the Chinese government launched campaigns helped some 16 million females become educated.In recent decades, wiping out illiteracy and (improve) the reading skills of women is regarded as one of the (high) priorities in China, according to the government's guideline for helping the country's females. The female illiteracy rate for those above age 15 has decreased from (rough) 90% in the early 1950s to 7% in 2019.In 2021, China scored 0.973 in the Global Gender Gap Report (release) by the World Economic Forum (with a score of 1 being completely equal).
