Living along with China's 110 million migrant workers are a large number of school-age children. As their parents struggle to adapt to somewhat unfriendly work environments in places away from their rural homes, these children's schooling proves to be an additional headache felt not only by their parents.

Huaifang Experiment Elementary School, a school for children of migrant workers in Huaifang township of Beijing's Fengtai District, was shut down by local authorities in February. The reason given was that closing down poorly equipped schools guarantees that all those still in operation will offer quality teaching.

Hu Miaomiao, a 10-year-old girl from Central China's Henan Province and one of the 300 students of that school, transferred to Shidai, another migrant school.

But not long after, Shidai was closed, too. Hu received a notice informing her that public schools nearby could accept her, except that she would have to pay an extra 200 yuan (US$24) per semester.

That was not a small sum for Hu's parents, who were working hard to make ends meet.

Hu's father earns about 600 yuan (US$72) a month, collecting and selling odds and ends from refuse heaps. That money was about all the family's disposable income. Hu's story is not a rare case among the hundreds of thousands of migrant families in the country.

Experts estimate that there are about 200,000 children of migrant workers in Beijing today. Some of these youngsters go to public schools and officially certified private schools. Some have dropped out of school altogether. But most choose to attend schools for the children of rural migrant workers.

According to the Compulsory Education Law, children 6 years of age or older should enter school for nine years of compulsory education.

As the national economy and personal careers show an increasing emphasis on education, all parents want their children to go to the best possible school so as to lay a sound basis for their future. Sending their children to a fine school may well be the most desirable starting point for migrant rural workers, who expect their children to pursue a life different from theirs.

But without a 甅DRV痟ukou甅DNM? or legally registered residence in the city where they work, these parents have to pay extra fees for their children to go to local public schools. That becomes a heavy burden to many low-income families.

Even if they can make it into better-equipped and staffed public schools, children of migrant workers are vulnerable to discrimination because of their rural background and relatively poor economic conditions.

A few migrant workers first launched small classes in their rented homes to teach their own children and those of neighbours. A special genre of privately run schools took shape thereafter.

Yi Benyao, one of the earliest to start such a school in Beijing and the owner of several migrant schools today, said that there were no classrooms and no good teaching materials when the school started in early 1990s. But "there were students longing for knowledge.''

Catering to the needs of the transient population, migrant schools have grown in number and scale in the past years. Lacking official statistics, it is predicted that there are more than 200 schools of this kind in Beijing.

Ever since they emerged from the crude sheds of migrant workers, however, none of the migrant schools ever got the approval of local education authorities.

These schools, which are taught, operated and supported by migrant workers themselves, are usually short of funding and therefore far from reaching government-set standards.

They usually charge 300 yuan (US$36) or so a semester for elementary school, which is quite moderate compared with the sum one pays for public school in China -- various charges and fees usually exceed 1,000 yuan (US$120) for semester.

Due in part to its low charges, they cannot invest much to improve facilities or hire qualified teachers. It is not unusual in such schools that students are crammed into a rented shabby classroom and two students have to share one desk.

Many teachers have not received any professional training. The absence of standards and proper supervision result in a host of quality problems.

Beijing municipal government issued a circular last July urging to rectify and transform migrant schools in Beijing. Schools that could not meet these standards -- such as possessing 1 million yuan (US$120,500) of registered capital, a classroom over 54 square metres with a 200-metre track -- were to be closed by the end of June this year.

Closing substandard schools was meant to protect the rights of migrant children, according to the municipal government. Migrant children could opt for well-managed schools that offer quality education and a sound environment, it said.

City authorities even slashed the extra public school fees by 50 per cent for migrant children, down to 200 yuan (US$24) per semester for elementary and 500 yuan (US$60) per semester for middle schools.

But like for Hu's family, the reduced fees are still unaffordable for many students.

Public schools, on the other hand, have difficulties taking on all these migrant students.

According to statistics released by the Beijing Education Commission in 2000, the average cost of compulsory education for an elementary school student was 2,700 yuan (US$325) a year, including teachers' salary, office expenses, teaching materials and other necessary expenses. Schools complain that the gap between the charge on migrant students and the cost can hardly be bridged.

Grassroots education departments also claim difficulties in settling the problem.

Tian Liyue, vice-director of the Education Committee of Shijingshan District in Beijing, said: "The migrant schools cannot meet the government requirements, in terms of either software or hardware, and therefore should be closed.''

Yet Tian and his fellows always found themselves between a rock and a hard place, as they realized that public schools still cannot meet all the demands.

"From a legal perspective, it is easy to close these schools. But education is so special, the children need to be educated. There is nothing wrong for their longing to go to school,'' Tian said.

The previous deadline for closing down substandard migrant schools in Beijing has been postponed, and today migrant schools are still worrying about their precarious fate.

The central government has once again emphasized the importance of education. It has put forward the strategy of invigorating China through science, technology and education. The 9-year compulsory education requirement is a basic solution to raise the nation's scientific and technological capability for innovation, while improving the overall quality of education for the population.

Public schools should open their doors to migrant children without asking for any extra fees, as the children have the equal right to get educated and the migrant population have performed their duty in paying taxes and fees.

At the current stage, however, the migrant schools should gain due recognition. Local authorities should face reality and grant relatively better managed migrant schools legal status. The standards for registration can be lowered a bit and there should be proper support for those having difficulties.

Migrant children need education, since it will open up opportunities that may change their future prospects. And the country needs well-educated citizens, for they are the builders of a promising nation.

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