The draft Amendment to the Compulsory Education Law, which is under review by China's lawmakers, has a special provision to ensure the rights to education for children of migrant workers.

The provision reads that school-age children, whose parents or other legal guardians go to work and dwell in places other than their household registration sites, are entitled to receive education at the places where their parents and guardians work and dwell in. Local governments should ensure that children of migrant workers enjoy equal conditions for compulsory education.

Zhou Ji, Minister of Education disclosed in late April that by the end of 2004, more than 6.4 million rural children of compulsory education age had come to cities together with their parents. Another 22 million rural children were left at rural homes, while their parents worked in cities.

By the end of 2004, the Beijing municipal government had arranged 288,000 children of migrant workers to receive compulsory education in the city, and 74 percent of them studied in public schools. The Guangdong provincial government had arranged 800,000 children of migrant workers to receive compulsory education in the province, and 520,000 of them studied in public schools.

(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2006)