STD exposes plight of migrant children(2)

Children suffer

The tragedy is a microcosm of the plight of the children of China's 240 million rural migrant workers in cities and factory towns. Migrant children are usually left at home with their aging grandparents. Those who follow their working parents may get a taste of city life, but often struggle to enroll at good schools.

Migrant workers face difficulties educating their children as they do not hold a household registration, commonly known as hukou, in the area they've moved to. The lack of hukou also prevents them from enjoying other social benefits when they relocate, including access to medical services.

Migrant workers also generally lack funds to buy their children's way into the best schools, and do not often have time to attend to their children's legitimate needs, including schooling.

Facilities in many of the kindergartens for migrant children are basic, the education resources limited, and most teachers unqualified, as the schools usually operate on very tight budgets.

Abruptly shutting down schools for migrant children can also cause other problems.

Last year, about 2,300 children, mostly from migrant families, were forced to return home as the government closed 31 illegal kindergartens in Xihongmen, a suburb of Beijing.

Most of the shuttered kindergartens were built without permission from local land authorities and others had become dilapidated. The closure was part of Beijing's intense crackdown on illegal and unsafe buildings after a fire at a garment workshop dorm killed 18 people in April 2011.

Education experts say the emergence of schools for migrant children is a result of scarce public education resources, and they suggest the government help these schools improve their facilities and the quality of education.

Education Minister Yuan Guiren pledged last month that China would make further efforts to improve compulsory education for the children of migrant workers in 2012.

He said that children who follow their parents to study and live in cities will be included in the financial security system and considered in the regional education development plan.

In affluent towns like Shao-xing in coastal Zhejiang province, where private enterprises are struggling through a severe labor shortage, wealthy employers are offering to transfer migrant workers' children to better schools.