How to provide schooling for the children of laborers from rural areas who come to work in the city without the residency permits that would qualify their families for public education? This has become a real problem in China.
“Take Beijing for example,” said Tang Can, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. “The average payment for one child who is a non-resident in public school ranges from 1,080 to 2,580 yuan (US$130-311) per semester. Only very few parents can afford to send the children to so expensive school.”
Citing statistics from the Ministry of Public Security, Tang estimated the number of transient workers and their families in China at over 90 million -- including some 2 million children of school age.
In Beijing, as well as other cities in China, there is a residency requirement which most rural laborers do not meet. Children born of non-residents in Beijing also become non-residents.
Because of their non-resident status, most children do not qualify for attendance at public schools. And because of their low income, they cannot afford private schools. That leaves non-sanctioned schools of which there are some 140 separately in Beijing and Shanghai.
An estimated 80,000 students throughout China attend these “shed” schools, so-called because of their simple wooden desks and chairs in humble and unstable surroundings: The schools can be eliminated by the government and the teachers sent home because most of them do not have teaching certificates and the educational level cannot be guaranteed.
Some local governments have worked out regulations to allow non-resident children to enter public schools at relatively low cost. Tang cited as an example the governments in Ningbo, a coastal city in southeast China’s Zhejiang Province, and in Beijing where in 2001, two public schools in Haidian District opened their gates to non-resident children at a nominal cost.
Tang suggested that solutions can be found in reallocating resources: As the birth rate decreases annually, some schools face empty seats that could be filled by non-resident children, to the benefit of all involved.
Tang said she also hopes the government will work to supervise “shed” schools and train teachers for their job to help non-resident children get the education they deserve.
(China.org.cn 06/25/2001)
