Poor rural students in China struggle to stay in school.(Main)

Byline: ALEXA OLSEN Associated Press

YANMAIDI, China - At the Wenling River Elementary, children struggle. They struggle to stay in school. And if they manage that, they struggle to keep warm in their unheated classroom and to understand the language their teacher lectures in.

Villagers in Yanmaidi, a mountain village of 300 people in China's southwest, are the poorest of the country's poor.

They eke out a living planting oats and potatoes on small plots of mountain land. The town is 10,000 feet above sea level and thousands of miles from the economic boom in China's east.

Narrowing the rich-poor divide is a top priority, China's communist …