Children of migrant workers face a rocky road as they struggle to find good education in the cities. Fixing the problem is now getting government attention
　　
　　Ye Xinggui, a farmer from east China’s Anhui Province, set out for Beijing with his wife to find work three years ago. It has been a time fraught with troubles for the hard-working couple. Now they are faced with a new dilemma. Their seven-year-old daughter may have to quit school because the lease on the school building is set to expire. This is the fourth time that the school, run by migrant teachers, has been forced to relocate, each time sending the young students farther from the city.
　　“We don’t want our little girl to quit school, but what can we do?” said a desperate Ye.
　　Last June, the couple brought their daughter Ye Er to Beijing so she could be educated in the capital. They applied to their local sub-district committee for a temporary schooling permit, but the exorbitant charges made this impossible. This is despite an order by the Beijing Municipal Government in 2004 to cancel extra schooling fees for migrant workers’ children. Schools still manipulate the system, finding ways to drag extra fees or even “donations” for tuition from this struggling labor force.
　　“A primary school in Hujialou once agreed to accept my daughter, but only after we had provided a ‘donation’ of 20,000 yuan ($2,500),” said Ye. The amount is out of reach for this mason and his wife, who picks up odd jobs when she can. In contrast, schools specifically set up to teach migrant workers’ children have much lower fees, but unfortunately, the ones near Ye’s work site are already full.
　　After a lot of hard work, the couple eventually found a suitable primary school 10 km from their home. In order to save on bus fare, the girl walks to school. “As long as I can go to school, I will overcome whatever difficulties arise,” she said.
　　The choices facing Ye Er’s parents and the other millions of migrant worker parents are not easy. They can enroll their children in private schools or schools run by migrant workers, register them as transient students in state-run schools, return them to school in their hometown or worst of all, pull them out of school altogether.
　　As more rural laborers flock into cities in the search for employment--about 100 million are moving between the countryside and cities, making up 10 percent of the country’s total population--the education of their children has become a major concern. And it’s an issue not only disturbing the parents, but also the government and society at large. According to conservative statistics from relevant departments, 7 million children in this group are at the school age of six to 14, and should be engaged in the nine-year compulsory education program.
　　
　　Joint effort needed
　　
　　Due to the current residential registration system, farmers are deprived of the same treatment as urban residents in education opportunities, social welfare and other areas.
　　In recent years, however, changes have begun to take place.
　　
　　The Law on Compulsory Education requires that all school-age children should be provided with access to schooling, and the Central Government has also put forward explicit policies stating that governments in areas receiving migrant workers ought to help their children enroll in local state-run schools. In September 2003, the State Council ordered more financial support to schools receiving large numbers of such children. In March 5, 2005, in his Government Work Report, Premier Wen Jiabao reiterated that greater efforts should be made to help migrant workers’ children with access to schools.
　　Beijing now has 300,000 migrant children in its compulsory education system, 70 percent of whom are enrolled in state-run schools. The municipal government of Beijing allocates special funds to districts and counties experiencing financial problems, because of the large influx of these children.
　　According to Sun Yong, Deputy Director of the Education Commission of Daxing District, since 2003 the district government has allocated more than 20 million yuan ($2.5 million) in annual subsidies to schools taking in the almost 30,000 migrant children there.
　　In Shanghai, although only one-third of the 300,000 migrant children in the city are enrolled in state-run schools, the municipal government has promised to offer more education opportunities in state-run schools for these children.
　　In southeast China’s Zhejiang Province, arrangements have been put in place to allow parents to pay tuition fees in monthly installments or in arrears. Those experiencing particular financial difficulties will be exempted from part or all of the tuition fees.
　　The city of Shaoxing in Zhejiang has made its 15 primary and secondary schools completely accessible to migrant children. Moreover, it is stipulated that none of these schools is allowed to refuse migrant students who are qualified to take the compulsory education.
　　Financial difficulties are always used as excuses to refuse children of migrant workers, but it is undeniable that financial pressure is a major problem. As major recipients of migrant workers’ children, state-run schools are under heavy strain in terms of school buildings, teaching staff, finance and teaching facilities. Most of them are now overloaded. In urban-rural fringes the high concentration of migrant population results in insufficient school buildings. Worse still, in line with the overall plan on urban construction, it seems impossible to expand or build new school buildings in the coming years.
　　Financially speaking, Xiang Jiquan, professor from the Research Institute of Chinese Rural Problems in central China’s Huazhong Normal University, suggests part of the Land Use Right Grant Fee be used for migrant children’s education. In recent years, China’s Land Use Grant Right Fee has amounted to over 910 billion yuan ($113.7 billion) and farmers should receive some compensation for this, he said.
　　In Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province, the local government is exploring the option of allocating part of the local business taxes collected from the migrant population to the children’s education.
　　Some local governments have adopted a series of measures to use education funds in a more fair and effective way. For example, it is suggested that education outlays be directly allocated to students as living expenses, and schools that accept migrant children will receive cash from local governments by proving that they have a quota of such students. In this way, state-run schools will be willing to receive more migrant children, investments may function more efficiently and privately run schools may enjoy a great opportunity of rapid development.
　　
　　Social intervention
　　
　　Beijing Xingzhi School for migrant workers’ children finally obtained the permit to begin operating a year ago. The school had previously been forced to move five times, due to its inadequate facilities. Like Xinzhi, an increasing number of schools run by non-governmental sectors are beginning to be recognized.
　　“I have begun to have confidence in what I’m doing and started investing in both the teaching team and the school facilities according to the strict standards set by the government on privately run schools,” said Wu Qinglian, Principal of Beijing Qinglian School, who started a class in her own courtyard in 1987. Initially she intended to run a kindergarten for 40 children from Beijing, but later most turned out to be children of migrant workers. Thanks to bank loans, a new school building has been constructed and the facilities are now oriented toward migrant workers’ children.
　　Cui Chuanyi is a research fellow with the Agricultural Department of the State Council’s Development Research Center. In his opinion, the public education system should take over the responsibility of migrant children’s education fees and the government should gradually stop providing these costs. It is a transition that may take a while, he said. During the transitional period, non-governmental sectors should be allowed to run schools for migrant workers’ children and what the government needs to do is to offer them guidelines, said Cui.
　　Governments at various levels have now begun to support schools run by non-governmental sectors by supplying them with subsidies and unused buildings once used by state-run schools free of charge or at a low rental. They are also helping to train teachers for these schools. At the same time, supervisors and qualified teachers are being sent by the government to standardize and improve the teaching in these schools.
　　More favorable policies are continuing to be released for the development of these schools. Take the situation in Beijing’s Chaoyang District for example. While these schools must live up to strict standards in terms of canteen hygiene, building safety and teaching staff, other qualifications are quite flexible. For example, a 200-meter playground track will be acceptable (the norm is 400 meters), if there is not enough land available, and an allowance will be made to reduce the minimum registered capital of 1.5 million yuan ($187,000) to 300,000 yuan ($37,500). If school facilities meet the requirements, but teaching staff do not, the school will still be allowed to operate within a certain period of time to meet all the criteria. It is expected that by September 2007, all privately run schools in Chaoyang District oriented to migrant workers’ children will be fundamentally qualified.
　　However, some departments are still reluctant to provide permanent sites for these schools, which are regarded as “temporary buildings” and many of them operate from rented houses and need to be constantly moved, disrupting the education of the children. Without a secure environment, good teaching quality is out of the question, said Cui, who suggested that urban construction planning should cover schools for migrant workers’ children too, allowing the schools to function for at least 10 years and giving the children the stability and facilities they so badly need to make the most of their school years.

相關熱詞搜索：Fight Education Ｔｈｅ　Ｆｉｇｈｔ�。妫铮颉。牛洌酰悖幔簦椋铮� the struggle for an education fight for the eight