Beijing has vowed to ensure migrant children have the same education opportunities as local children.

The municipal government is responsible for offering the nine-year compulsory education to all school-age children, both local and migrant, said a city official.

Deputy secretary of the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Long Xinmin said the capital had 288,400 migrant children, 235,000 from the China's rural areas.

Some 189,100 are attending public schools in Beijing, while 99,200 are going to small-scale private schools run by migrant workers exclusively for the migrant children.

Beijing had 299 migrant schools, most on the city's outskirts, where large numbers of migrant workers live. Only 13 of these small, inexpensive schools are up to the standards set by Beijing's education authorities in terms of facilities, teachers numbers and qualifications.

Long said another 28 migrant schools will meet the standards this year. The city government has encouraged public schools to recruit more migrant children by banning them from demanding "donation charges" for migrant children.

Public schools used to charge 1,200 yuan (US$145) a year for each primary school student who was not a permanent resident of Beijing, and 2,000 yuan a year for junior high.

The local government has also allocated 35 million yuan from the municipal treasury to help migrant children from poverty-stricken families finish primary and junior high school education.

(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2004)