Migrant students left behind as schools shut down

Due to safety concerns and licensing problems, about 24 privately-funded schools in Beijing's Daxing, Chaoyang and Haidian districts have been shut down since June, leaving the futures of about 14,000 children – almost all of them the offspring of migrant workers – stuck in limbo.

(Ecns.cn) – "August 16, a primary school -- It is a scorching summer morning. A foul smell, as usual, is coming up from the drainage ditch. Villagers, in small groups under the shade of trees, look at the school gate with curiosity," wrote Li Wen, a staff member of the Dongba township government at Chaoyang District, in her article "The Closing down of Schools for Migrant Workers' Children."

Li told Southern Weekend that they had received a notice from authorities in July asking them to find new arrangements for the students by September.

The daunting mission assigned to Li and her colleagues is a problem faced by some 14,000 children across the capital caused by the latest round of closures by authorities targeting unsafe private schools. Since June, about 24 schools in Daxing, Chaoyang and Haidian districts have been shut down. With the new semester just days away, the parents of the stranded students face a race against time to get them enrolled before classes start.

Only the education authority in Chaoyang, where nine schools were closed, has promised to ensure that all pupils will be guaranteed alternative spots, according to a report in Beijing News.

Authorities in Haidian and Daxing, where at least 20 schools have disappeared, refused to comment on the issue Tuesday.

Problematic re-enrollment

The municipal education commission called for a similar closing of schools back in September 2005, leaving many people (both local residents and migrant workers) perplexed, since the schools were seen by the municipal government in 1993 as a measure to provide education for the children of migrants.

The commission said on Tuesday that it will not let "any student drop out of school," promising to rearrange the migrant children into public schools, where local students attend.

Li Wen said there are four privately-owned schools which take migrant children in Dongba. And although more than 2,000 of their 3,000 students have signed up to relocate to public schools, the re-enrollment process has been hampered by various obstacles, including schools that refuse to cooperate.

Dongba Experimental School (a privately-funded primary school which enrolls migrants) is just one example. The school's annual net profit is around 1 million yuan ($156,000), said Li, and "the school still has a one-year lease on the land, so they've decided to ignore the government's circular."

Nevertheless, the township-level government has posted a sign at the school's gate which reads: "A letter to all parents… the school has been torn down due to safety concerns, please register your child at the following four public schools, no tuition fee required…"

In defiance of the notice, the school has written "School starts today!" on a blackboard by the gate.

To complicate matters further, migrant students are required to present several government-issued certificates before they can enroll in public schools, but only a small number of them can gather everything that is required, said Xie Zhenqing, the principle of Hongxing Zidi Primary School, another privately-funded school located in Haidian District.

Of the 1,400 students at Hongxing Zidi Primary School, only 200 have been authorized to enroll in public schools.

In response, five public primary schools in Haidian District announced Thursday that they are willing to take migrant students, with or without the certificates, Beijing News reported yesterday. Qiao Jian, deputy director of the district-level education commission, said the schools will treat these children as equals to other Beijing students.