China's Project
Hope, a social charity program that helps rural students, will
finance 15,000 students from migrant workers' families in 27 cities
to go to school in the next half year, the China Youth Development
Foundation (CYDF) has said.
Each child will receive a grant of 600 yuan (US$73) before
September 1 this year, when a new school term begins, said Zhang
Chuanyuan of the CYDF, adding that the money can basically meet a
student's academic needs.
After a public bidding held earlier this month, the CYDF chose
27 cities to receive aid, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen,
Nanjing, Shenyang and Ningbo, which attract a majority of China's
migrant workers, Zhang said.
"One of the criteria for a city to be chosen was whether local
government gives migrant children equal treatment for education as
local children," said Zhang.
Statistics from the CYDF show that about 20 million children
flow into cities from the countryside with their parents each
year.
About 80 percent of these children pay an average of 856 yuan
(US$104) more than local students, said a survey conducted by the
CYDF.
The CYDF started the "grants for migrant children" program early
in January this year and carried out trials in six major Chinese
cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, in the first
half year. So far the program has helped 4,200 migrant students to
attend school.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education has set a target
for the city's public schools to accept 20,000 more children of
migrant workers this year.
According to the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, more than one
quarter of Beijing's 500,000 migrant families are living under the
poverty line. More than 80 percent of migrant children are unable
to attend middle schools. By the end of 2003, 70,000 of the 240,000
migrant children in Beijing failed to get schooling.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education also urges public
schools to scrap the extra fees previously imposed on children of
migrant workers who do not have permanent residence in Beijing.
Public schools used to charge 1,200 yuan (US$145) a year for
each primary school student from migrant workers' families, and
2,000 yuan (US$241) a year for junior high.
As for small-scale private schools run by migrant workers
exclusively for migrant children, the municipal education
authorities have vowed to upgrade their standards in terms of
facilities, teacher numbers and qualifications. Beijing had about
299 migrant schools, most on the city's outskirts, where large
numbers of migrant workers live. So far, only 13 are up to the
standards set by Beijing's education authorities.
(China Daily August 26, 2004)