150 7 Marginalised Children and Universal Basic Education
7.3.1 Problems of Left Behind Children
First, there may be a lack of support from the guardian for learning for left-behind
children. Grand parents may have little or no education and few resources to
enrich children’s learning. They may or may not be motivated. Relatives or foster
parents may also have many other demands on their time in an agricultural envi-
ronment and thus neglect left behind children. In Zhaojue where most left behind
children live with grandparents only 16 % are judged to be performing well at
school and over 70 % have poor performance in learning.
Second, parents work outside the home has a complex impact on the lives of
left-behind children. Without a parent around, left-behind children get less care
and affection. Left-behind children may come to see themselves as different and
neglected without a caring parent. In Zhaojue over 50 % of left behind children’s
parents work outside the Province and are therefore unlikely to return frequently.
The majority make only one or two return visits a year.
Third, left-behind children who live with grandparents may be spoiled as a
result of over protective parenting which may compromise good character and
mental health. It is argued that some of left-behind children are more likely to act
in an unsociable way and can be indifferent, with poor academic performance.
Fourth, from the point of view of the family, migrant workers may make an
unbalanced choice between income and children’s education. In order to improve
family life, more and more farmers leave their land and work outside home. They
want their lives to become better and better, and want to provide the next genera-
tion with abundant financial support. However, being a migrant worker may con-
flict with children’s education, and parents may choose the former over the latter.
Fifth, from the point of school education, the curriculum is not designed to rec-
ognize the special needs of left behind children. This may be especially true for
those who board at school from a young age and have little parental contact. Due
to the incompleteness of family life, there are lots of confusions and problems in
the psychological development of left-behind children, requiring schools to give
more help and guidance, and emotional support to compensate for personality
issues caused by lack of a parent-child relationship.
Finally, left behind children may experience many other problems including
late and over age enrollment as a result of an absence of parent monitoring of pro-
gress coupled with low levels of achievement.
7.4 Educational Participation and Gender Equity
The education of girls has historically been given lower priority than that of boys,
not least because girls are seen to marry and join other families. This has been
changing since 1949 with the commitment of the State to gender equity. When the
PRC was founded, the enrollment rate of girls was only 15 %. By the time of the