School closure hits 40,000 migrant children in China

Beijing: Chinese authorities have closed down several schools in Beijing, affecting over 40,000 children of migrant workers, leading to strong protests and accusations of discrimination against the community. Several parents protested yesterday over the arbitrary closure of a number of private schools in Beijing affecting over 40,000 children specially those of migrant workers, State run Global Times reported. [caption id=“attachment_62796” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Due to restrictions of China’s “hukou” system, migrant workers, usually farmers from backward rural areas cannot enjoy the same treatment in terms of education. Reuters”]  [/caption] In a photo filed by the Beijing News, a protesting father was seen lying on the ground outside a closed school in Haidian District shouting “we too have also made contributions to Beijing”. The city has lakhs of migrant workers who worked on scores of projects. “It exposes the inequality in education. Why those children of migrant workers cannot have a school to attend? Just like those children of Beijing’s denizens?” said one posting on Weibo.com, China’s most popular microblogging website.“Please help them and let the children go to school!” another posting said. Due to restrictions of China’s “hukou” (household registration) system, migrant workers, usually farmers from backward rural areas, in cities cannot enjoy the same treatment in terms of education, medical care, social insurance as local hukou holders, although the government has taken measures to address the issue. In Beijing, there are more than four lakh children of migrant workers and more than 70 per cent of them attend government-funded schools, said Luo Jie, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Education Committee. Officials from the three districts told Xinhua news agency that those schools were closed because they had not won approval from education authorities to meet the required standards, such as in quality of construction, sports facilities, food and other safety issues. But in practice, unlike government-funded schools, it is difficult for those privately-run schools to meet those standards because their classrooms are usually old houses rented from local villages and they lack strong financial support. “I have applied for a school permit since 2002 when my school opened, but the education authorities have never given an approval even though I have done a lot to improve the school conditions,” a school principal surnamed Yang in Daxing District was quoted as saying by the Beijing News. According to some officials, the schools were closed despite orders that such action should be taken only after making alternate arrangements for the students. PTI