A man lies on his back in protest against the closure of a private school where his child was attending in Houbajia village, Haidian district on Monday. About 14,000 children across the capital have been affected after the latest round of closures by authorities targeting unsafe private schools. [Provided to China Daily]

Beijing - The 1,400 pupils of Hongxing Zidi Primary School have been struggling to find a classroom to take them in since bulldozers tore down their old one on Aug 9.

The future of these children, almost all of them the offspring of migrant workers, hangs in the balance, with only 200 so far able to gather all of the certificates needed to enter another public school, said principal Xie Zhenqing on Tuesday.

It is a problem faced by some 14,000 children across the capital, caused by the latest round of closures by authorities targeting unsafe private schools. Since June, about 24 schools in Daxing, Chaoyang and Haidian districts have been shut down. With the new semester just days away, the parents of stranded students face a race against time to get them enrolled before classes restart.

Only the education authority in Chaoyang, where nine schools were closed, has promised to ensure all pupils will be guaranteed alternative spots, Beijing News reported.

Authorities in Haidian and Daxing, where at least 20 schools have disappeared, refused to comment on the issue on Tuesday.

Reasons for the crackdown on private schools vary. The most common are that there is a lack of permits and that school buildings do not meet safety standards.

Yang Tuan, principal of a primary school in Daxing, told Beijing News she has been applying for official permits to run her school since 2002 but has never been approved.

According to safety standards, a school should be at least 15,000 square meters in size and have a floor space of at least 3,587 square meters, as well as a 200-meter track for sports.

"Being realistic, no private school for migrant children can meet that standard," said Yang, whose school was among those ordered to close this summer.

Zhang Zhiqiang at Migrant Workers' Friend, an non-governmental organization dedicated to helping laborers and their children, said just 63 primary schools for migrant workers' children have been approved by city authorities.

"Many people run schools for profits and are mostly unwilling to invest in improving the structure, as they are concerned about the future and whether or not the school will be shut down," Zhang said.

Even though most are unable to offer good teaching resources and better facilities, unauthorized schools survive because of the overall limited capacity of public schools, said Lu Huilin, a professor of sociology at Peking University.

The decision to close private schools for migrant workers' children is only justified if those pupils are all properly relocated, he added.

Data from the Beijing Bureau of Statistics show that the capital's population reached 19.61 million on Nov 1 last year, a 44.5 percent increase from 2000.

Included in that figure are 249,000 youngsters aged 6 to 14 who do not have permanent residency, 28 percent of the total and a 19.1 percent rise from 2000.