 Migrant schools in Beijing: Helping the community around us |
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The fastest growing economy in the world would not be possible without the sweat and muscle of migrant workers. Just as in all major cities in China, Beijing requires a large amount of manpower to complete all the necessary construction. With the additional manpower comes the extraordinary task of housing, feeding, and accommodating the incoming masses of migrant workers.
Students standing in front of new insulating windows and doors at Xin Xin Migrant School in Beijing
According to Li Yunli, deputy director of Beijing's population and family planning commission, 30% of the city's total population is a mobile population, and 80% of the mobile population consists of rural migrant workers. In addition to creating communities for incoming rural migrant workers, there is the challenge of accommodating their families. One does not see only men at the construction sites- wives, sisters, and mothers are there as well. Along with the manpower and labor comes a desire to settle and give one's family a better life. This is most clearly demonstrated in the migrant communities which build schools for their children. Whereas it is difficult to enroll their children into the city's school system for financial reasons; there are school headmasters in migrant communities who are willing to lower the annual tuition fee or waive it altogether.
A volunteer helps out during the Christmas party at Xin Xin Migrant School.
The migrant schools, wholly operated by migrant communities, have more recently been receiving financial support from local organizations in Beijing. The organizations recruit volunteers to teach migrant children English; support migrant families; and hold fund-raising activities that benefit migrant families, their children's education, and improve the condition of educational facilities.
Migrant children: the cost of their education
According to China Radio International, "migrant laborers in Chinese cities earn an average of 966 yuan (120.75 U.S. dollars) per month." In addition to leaving behind their supportive social networks and benefits, migrant laborers have to pay the price of their children's education in a larger, more competitive city. Three sets of parents, whose children attended Xin Xin Migrant School, were interviewed about their reasons for bringing their children with them to Beijing. They unanimously agreed that giving their children a better education in a city like Beijing would ultimately result in entrance into a university- a window of opportunity for a better life.
The "antiquated" heating system at Xin Xin Migrant School
According to Jonathan Hursch, founder of Compassion for Migrant Children (CMC), a group working with migrant communities and schools in Beijing, the average cost of tuition at a migrant school is 500 yuan per semester which accounts for 17% of the average migrant worker's income. According to the National Bureau of Statistics' Studies on Chinese Migrant Workers' Quality of Life, 49.2% of respondents (5,065 altogether) who brought children with them to the cities "had to pay an average registration fee of 1,226 yuan in addition to regular tuition fees." Fees may vary city to city and across different income brackets.
These fees are usually required by urban public schools which accept non-residents. Since rural migrant workers do not have a Beijing hu kou, they are asked to pay fees that they cannot afford. According to Jonathan, in addition to the costs of education, there are two other major challenges facing migrant children that prevent them from entering Beijing's public school system: discrimination and discomfort resulting from the discrimination. The discrimination they face is in the public school examination system. Because the children have moved and have missed a year or more of schooling, the children fall behind relative to the students who have been in the system consistently. The discomfort that arises from this discrimination, as well as from the difference in income, influences the parents' decision to send their children into the city's school system.
As a result, migrant workers will opt to send their children to local migrant schools.
Agatha So's Column
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