Six migrant schools face closure

Six migrant schools in a Changping district village are facing closure due to a demolition project, leaving teachers worried as to where the students can be educated.

Officials from Changping district Education Commission told the Legal Mirror Wednesday they could help the schools in Dongxiaokou village if they relocate within the district by providing them with new operating licenses.　

"The education commission has been very supportive to us in terms of granting operating licenses to the schools, but what we really need is empty ground for us to move to," said Wan Junjie, principal of Zhenhua school, the largest private school for migrant children in Changping. Last year, the school enrolled 1,300 students, but this year there are only 600.

Dongxiaokou has a population of around 70,000, only 1,000 of whom are local villagers, so there is a huge demand for the school, Wan noted.　

Wan is concerned that many of the district's privately-run migrant schools now face closure along with his, although so far, no official date has been given. The demolition started in late 2011, he said.

"In 2004, when we got official approval for this school, the cost to set it up was 1.5 million yuan ($236,400) borrowed from the bank," he said, "but now the cost would be about 5 million yuan."

Wan said he would receive some compensation, but not much, as he does not have property ownership certificates for the school buildings, which he built himself.

Hu Ming, principal of Mingxin migrant school said he was also losing students due to the uncertainty.

"We've lost 400 students this year, half of last year's enrollment," said Hu.

Zhang Zhiqiang, founder of Migrant Workers' Friend, said government should put more effort into helping these schools.

"Although some of the schools are set up just to make money, many of them are purely to help migrant workers' children get an education here," he said.