The all girls dormitory at the No 1 Primary School in Guangnan county. [Photo by Xu Lin/China Daily]

It encourages children from poverty-stricken counties to read aloud short science articles to their mothers, to not only foster closer parental bonds, but also help popularize scientific knowledge in rural areas.

"The all-girl class program is a great example of getting rid of poverty via education and plays an important role in Guangnan's poverty alleviation," Zhang Xiulan, head of Wenshan prefecture, said at the opening ceremony of the all-girl classes in September. The national-level impoverished county shed that unwanted label in November.

This semester, the school recruited 100 students for two all-girl classes, the first time that it has extended enrollment.

A company in Jiangsu province has provided over 1.04 million yuan ($159,000) to support the biennial program. This is to cover many items, such as the girls' living expenses and renovation fees for their dormitory.

Liao Nongying, a veteran teacher there, recalls that, back in the 1990s, the belief that men were superior to women was not uncommon in the county's more remote areas.