The draft Amendment to the Compulsory Education Law, which is
under review by China's lawmakers, has a special provision to
ensure the rights to education for children of migrant workers.
The provision reads that school-age children, whose parents or
other legal guardians go to work and dwell in places other than
their household registration sites, are entitled to receive
education at the places where their parents and guardians work and
dwell in. Local governments should ensure that children of migrant
workers enjoy equal conditions for compulsory education.
Zhou Ji, Minister of Education disclosed in late April that by
the end of 2004, more than 6.4 million rural children of compulsory
education age had come to cities together with their parents.
Another 22 million rural children were left at rural homes, while
their parents worked in cities.
By the end of 2004, the Beijing municipal government had
arranged 288,000 children of migrant workers to receive compulsory
education in the city, and 74 percent of them studied in public
schools. The Guangdong provincial government had arranged 800,000
children of migrant workers to receive compulsory education in the
province, and 520,000 of them studied in public schools.
(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2006)
