1437.2 Migrant Children in Urban Areas
Migrant children are defined as children who move with their parents to a new
place of work which is not where the family is registered with hukou. The major-
ity of these children’s parents are skilled and unskilled labourers though in the last
five years the number of migrants who are white-collar workers has increased in
metropolitan areas like Beijing and Shanghai. In Beijing most of the migrant chil-
dren now attend public schools but this is a recent development responding the
demand created by the large numbers involved and the social issues that were
developing from the exclusion of migrant children. The situation varies widely
across China and in many cities there remain big issues relating to the status and
opportunities for migrant children.
Local governments are responsible for providing basic education in China.
Inevitably they have limited human, financial and physical resources, and are con-
strained by the household registration system which means that migrant children
only have a right to education where they come from. In many large cities, the
number of migrant children greatly exceeds the capacity of the public school sys-
tem. This has resulted in the appearance of private schools for migrant workers
children (Da Gong Zi Di). This is not a reflection of demand for private schooling
so much as a response to lack of pubic provision. When urban migration took off
in the 1990s such schools were often supported from donations from caring people
philanthropists and community members. In the last decade more and more for-
profit providers have entered the market who seek to attract large numbers of fee
paying students and make profits. In the early 2000 the numbers of such private
schools were doubling every year (Wang 2005 ). Many of the schools had problems
with unstable financing, poor quality rented buildings, unqualified teachers, and
unauthorized operation with the threat of being closed by local authorities. In rap-
idly urbanizing areas around large cities these schools remain a major location for
school provision for migrant children, particularly in the rural-urban intersections.
All the children are supposed to get educated equally so education for migrant
children remains a serious issue to be solved. There is a long history of concern
going back to the State Education Commission of China’s School Attendance
Approaches for the School Age Migrant Children in the City and County Areas
(Trial) in 1996. This demonstrated awareness of the problem for the first time
and led to the formal promulgation of School Attendance Interim Approaches for
the School Age Migrant Children by the Department of Education in 1998. The
central government issued the Decisions on the Basic Education Reform and
Development of State Council in 2001, through which Chinese government con-
firmed that henceforth the inflow city and its full-time public schools are the two
major responsible parties to ensure the rights of migrants to access compulsory
education and were legally liable to make provision. This was the first time the
State Council confirmed the to “Two Major Parts” policy. Nine years later, DoE
issued the National Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development
Plan Outline (2010–2020). This confirmed the “Two Major Parts” principle and
started to address the problems arising from the admission exam program for