Helping Yushu students unlock new financial and tax skills
Bai Dongyan tutors students. (Photo by Cheng Huanning, reporter for this newspaper)On January 4th, at the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Vocational and Technical School, the lights of evening self-study sessions pierced through the cold fog of the plateau. In the training room of the Finance and Management Department, 48 computer screens lit up simultaneously, reflecting the focused faces of the students.
Bai Dongyan, a PhD in Management and a teacher from Beijing working in Qinghai, is bending down to guide her students: "Look here, to make a receipt, you first need to collect the receipts. The review process is just as careful as when we check the cordyceps purchase order."
This scene plays out every Tuesday and Friday. Since launching the intelligent finance and taxation special training program in September 2025, this "gold medal mentor" has helped more than 60 students in Yushu feel the pulse of the digital economy.
In August 2025, Bai Dongyan arrived in Yushu from Beijing. During her first few days there, she adjusted to the climate while also getting a feel for the school. When she arrived at the school's training lab, the scene before her was disheartening: the computers couldn't connect to the internet, there were no dedicated network maintenance personnel, and the department's teachers were acting as "network administrators." The computer hardware and teaching equipment were underutilized, and the students hadn't yet been exposed to the intelligent financial and tax teaching platform, while vocational school students in Beijing were already proficient in using intelligent financial and tax systems to process business.
“Teacher Bai, we also want to teach new technologies, but we lack both the platform and the methods,” said Soang Zhaxi, the head of the Department of Finance and Management, revealing the crux of the problem. As an important vocational education base in southern Qinghai, the school’s accounting program has achieved breakthrough results in provincial competitions, but it is limited by technical barriers and cannot be upgraded.
In the days that followed, Bai Dongyan began revising her teaching plan in her dormitory. She contacted Zoomlion Group and Beijing Economic Management School to obtain teaching access, transforming her research findings on "integration of job training, curriculum, competition, and certification" into practical training cases. She also broke down Zoomlion's intelligent financial and tax skills training techniques into easy-to-understand tutorials. "We can't let the children of the plateau lose at the starting line of technology," she wrote in her teaching and research log.
During the first training session in September, when the interface of the intelligent financial and tax platform unfolded on the screen, student Zhuoma couldn't help but exclaim, "I didn't know accounting could be so fast!" Bai Dongyan immediately captured this enthusiasm and specially designed a localized case study on "financial and tax processing of cordyceps cooperatives": "Look, everyone, just input the herders' cordyceps purchase data into the system, and a report can be generated with one click."
With the advancement of intelligent finance and tax training, students' skill improvement is readily apparent, but Bai Dongyan knows that "giving aid" is not as effective as "creating self-sufficiency." She devotes more energy to building the teaching staff, and in accordance with the "mentor-apprentice pairing" mechanism for aiding Qinghai, she regularly holds weekly teaching and research sharing meetings, sharing her more than 20 years of vocational education experience without reservation, from teaching methods to research projects.
In accordance with the "mentor-apprentice pairing" mechanism for aid to Qinghai, Bai Dongyan was paired with six local teachers. During each training session, young teachers Dong Ying and Yi Xilamo sat in the back row of the classroom, their notebooks filled with notes on the teaching process.
After a practical lesson, Dongying chased after her with her lesson plan: "Teacher Bai, how did you know where the students were likely to get stuck?" "You have to think from the students' perspective." Under her guidance, Dongying's "card-based accounting subject teaching method" case has been incorporated into the department's teaching plan.
This "teaching a man to fish" approach is showing results. Teachers have not only mastered the teaching methods of the intelligent platform, but have also begun to try curriculum innovation. "Before, classes relied entirely on lecturing, but now students can do business simulations on their own," said teacher Sonam Baji, her words brimming with a sense of accomplishment. The practical assessment pass rate of her class has recently increased by 30%.
In a smart tax filing skills demonstration class in early December 2025, student Angcaiji skillfully completed the process. Several "10 points" ratings that popped up on the screen brought a shy smile to her face.
"Teacher Bai always says that skills are the best passport." Several students showed off their practical training assignments, saying, "We also want to participate in national competitions if we have the opportunity." Bai Dongyan has already planned the path for the children. She is leading the formation of the school's skills competition team and transferring the training system from Beijing to Yushu.
To this end, the Department of Finance and Management has launched a teaching model reform, incorporating the "platform teaching + hands-on practice" model introduced by Bai Dongyan into the regular courses, so that students can master the core application capabilities of intelligent finance and taxation through immersive operation.
"This is not short-term assistance, but rather the establishment of a sustainable vocational education ecosystem." Jin Qiang, the principal of the state vocational and technical school, revealed the profound meaning of the aid-to-Qinghai cooperation.
In late autumn, Yushu had already seen its first snowfall, and Bai Dongyan's dormitory light often stayed on until late at night. Beside her computer on her desk, the first draft of the school-based textbook, "Accounting Basics," was being completed according to schedule. Looking at the computer screen, she pondered her next task, her eyes shining: "What can we leave behind for the teachers and children here? That's the meaning of our being here."
This article was written by reporter Cheng Huanning.
Source: Qinghai Daily
