Huang Xiaoru is happy. She won a painting award in a competition and went to several events organized by her primary school prior to International Children's Day.
The eight-year-old and her younger brother study in Wanxiu Primary School, Nanning, capital of southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Their parents, from a rural county run by Nanning, have been working in the city for years.
Two-thirds of the 1,703 students in the school are children of migrant workers.
"Our class has 54 pupils, 44 of whom are children like Huang," said Chen Jinling, head teacher of Huang's class.
"As most of their parents are busy, the school held a number of events for them ahead of Children's Day," Chen said.
Instead of leaving children behind in their home villages, to be cared for by aging grandparents, more Chinese migrant workers are taking them to cities to provide better care and education for them.
China has around 14 million children who live with migrant parents in cities and 9 million "left-behind children," that stay back in rural areas.
Children's education is a major concern of migrant laborers, who have made significant contribution to the country's rapid urbanization.
In recent years, the Chinese government has urged local public schools to simplify qualification requirements and recruit as many children of migrant workers as they can to ensure their compulsory education -- primary and junior middle schooling.
Most Chinese parents prefer public schools as they are of good quality and low cost. However, due to their capacities, public schools in cities cannot absorb all the children of migrant workers.
"Ten years ago when we brought our eldest daughter here, she could not enter a public school as we only had a rural hukou [a basic household registration]," said Tang Haiyan, a female migrant worker in Nanning.
Things are much easier now. Tang's second daughter studies in a public primary school in the city.
"Parents who have the right documents for a hukou, residency and work are able to enroll their children," said Lei Youheng, headmaster of a Nanning primary school.
In Nanning, the number of children of migrant workers studying in public schools has increased from 113,000 in 2012 to 136,000 in 2016, accounting for 53 percent and 62 percent of total local migrant children, respectively. The remaining children of migrant workers have to attend private schools.
The schooling of such children varies from province to province. In the northern province of Hebei, the government says 90 percent of children of migrant workers are enrolled in public schools.
A rural education report released by Northeast Normal University in Jilin Province in December, showed the country's children of migrant workers in cities reached 13.7 million in 2015, up 8.4 percent from 2011. About 84 percent studied in public schools.
The central budget has allocated an urban-rural compulsory education fund of 117 billion yuan (17.2 billion U.S. dollars), up 6.4 percent from 2016, said the Ministry of Finance in early May.
The fund will also benefit millions of children of migrant workers in cities. They will enjoy free textbooks and exemption of school fees. Living subsidies will be offered to boarding students whose families have financial difficulties.
Local governments have unveiled similar policies to guarantee compulsory education for children of migrant workers.
In April, the Education Department of Henan Province released a document to ensure equality for children of migrant workers in compulsory education, urging efforts to simplify enrollment procedures.
