Compulsory Education of Migrant Workers Children inChina.docx

Compulsory Education of Migrant Workers Children inChina.docx

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CompulsoryEducationofMigrantWorkersChildreninChina

CompulsoryEducationofMigrantWorkers’ChildreninChina

　　FromDengXiaoping’s“openreform”policyin1978，People’sRepublicofChina（PRC）witnessedrapidsocialandeconomicdevelopment.Simultaneously，massiveurbanizationhappenedthatruralfarmers（orcalledpeasant）flowtobigcitieslikeBeijing，ShanghaiandGuangzhouseekforbetterjobopportunities.AccordingtothedataoftheChinesenationalstatisticsbureau，thenumberofmigrantworkersacrossthecountryrisesto252，780millionin2011（NBOS，2011）.Therefore，educationofmigrantworkers’childrenbecomesaseriousissuewhichincludestwocategories：

oneistheeducationofchildrenwhofloatedtourbanwiththeirparents，called‘migrantchildren’，theotheristheeducationofremained-homechildren（orcalledthe‘left-behindchildren’）.However，duetoChina’srestrictedresidentregistrants（calledHukouinmandarin）systemandmanyotherpoliticalobstacles，theeducationofmigrantworkers’childrenfacescertaindifficulties.Fordeeperanalysisandresearch，thispaperwillsimplyfocusonthecompulsoryeducationofmigrantchildren.

　　AccordingtotheInterimMeasureofSchoolEducationforTemporaryMigrantchildren（1998）issuedbytheSECof‘Migrantchildren’referstochildrenaged6-14years（or7-15）yearswhotemporarilyflowedandlivedwiththeirparentsorguardiansasmigrantsformorethanoneandahalfyears.Inaddition，inthe5thChinesenationalCensusdefined‘Migrantchildren’as“youthunder18yearsofagewhohavelivedinatown/subareaformorethanoneandhalfayearandwhosehukouisinanothertown/subarea”（ZhangandZhao，2003）.

　　The9-yearscompulsoryeducationincludes6yearsprimaryeducationand3yearsjunioreducation.Compulsoryeducation，oneofthepublicproducts，playsveryimportantroleinimprovingthenationalqualityofthewholesociety.Especiallycompulsoryeducationforruralpeople，istheweakestlinkintheeducationfieldinChina.SothedevelopmentofruralcompulsoryeducationhasbecomethekeyfactorinpromotingthedevelopmentofChineseeducation（Zhou，2012）.

　　Fromthe1970s，numerousruralpeoplethatarecalledmigrantpeople（or‘floatingpeople’）flowtothecityinChina.Amongthefloatingpeople，workersdominatedalargeproportionthatthereare158，630thousandsmigrantworkers.MigrantworkerscalledNongmingonginMandarinwhichreferspeasantswhogiveuptheirownagriculturecareerthengotocitiestobeaworkerintheprocessofChina’smarketreform（Zhou，2012）.Moreover，currentlyitisthetrendthatchildrenfollowedtheirparentsintothecity.Accordingtothestatisticsofthenationalbureauofstatistics（NBOS）ofPRC，familyflowtogetherdominates24millionamongthe252，780millionmigrantworkers（NBOS，2011）.Hence，theeducationofmigrantchildrenbecomesabigprobleminthenationalnine-yearcompulsoryeducationstrategy.　　1.Barriers

　　1.1Difficultyinenrollment

　　InChina，peoplehavetwoimportantdocuments：

NationalIDandHukou.Hukouisissuedwithpeople’saccommodationinitiallyatbirth.ItmeansthatcitizenwhoborninthecityisgivenanUrbanHukouwhilstpeopleborninruralareagetaRuralHukou.Moreover，themigrationofresidentwillnotchangethestatueofHukou.Therefore，themigrant-workersareworkinginurbanbutstillholdingaruralregisteredresidence.Sodoestheirchildren.However，aperson’seducation，medical，housingsubsidiesandothersocialwelfaresarecloselyconnectedwiththeirhukou（Solinger，1999）.Intheeducationfield，China’smajorEFAgoalisnine-yearcompulsoryeducation.Itmeansastudentcouldgetfreenineyearcompulsoryeducationinthestateschoolwheretheirhukouregistered.Obviously，migrantchildrencouldnotbenefitfromit.

　　1.2Difficultiesinadapting

　　Duetothebiggapofknowledgebase，culturalbackground，learningabilityandhabitsandpsychologicalcharacteristicswithurbanchildren，migrantchildrenisboundtoencountermanydifficultiesinadaptingtotheschoollifeofthecity.AccordingtoWangandShao（2009）’sinvestigationofmigrantstudents，40.9%ofthestudentsfeel‘learningpressureistoogreat’，47.7%ofthestudents‘Learningaredifficulttokeepupwith’and27.4%ofstudentsthoughtthelearningisboring’（WangandShao，2009，p.560）.Moreover，themigrantworkers’educationlevelislowthattheycouldnothelptheirchildrenstudy.DuringWangandShao（2009）’ssurvey，thereare32.7%ofmigrantstudentssaid“parentsdon'thavetheabilityfortheauxiliaryguideoftheirstudy”and50.4%ofparentssaid“Donothavetheabilityforcounselingforchildren’sstudy”simultaneously.

　　Therefore，becauseofdifficultiesinenrollstateschoolandgetfreecompulsoryeducations，numerousmigrantchildrenhavetochooseprivateschoolsormigrantchildren’sschools（migrantschool）.However，mostmigrantworkersearnalowsalarywhichishardtoaffordthetuitionfee.Also，duetothedifficultiesinadaptingthestudyofurbanschoolandlackofparentshelp，thedropoutrateofmigrantstudentsissohighthatalreadyreached9.3%in2010（Zhou，2012）.Moreover，eventheyareabletopay，thequalityofeducationinprivateandmigrantschoolisweak.

　　1.3Managementbarriers

　　However，therearemanydifficultiesforschoolstoacceptthesemigrantstudentsaswell.Themostdifficultthingsarethemanagementofthesemigrantstudents.InChina，themanagementofstudentsisbasedontheirenrollmentstatusasstudents（calledXuejiinMaderin）.AndstudentsneedtooffertheHukouwhenstudentsenrolledinschools.However，certainmigrantstudentsenrolledinschoolsbutfrequentlydonotenrolloutwhentheyleftschool.Hence，thefrequentcirculationofmigrantstudentscausedproblemsofschoolstomanagetheirXueji.　　Thesecondbarrieristheperformanceofmigrantstudents.Generally，theaverageperformanceofmigrantstudentsismuchlowerthanurbanstudents（WangandShao，2009）.Foracademicside，theirlearningandunderstandingabilityislow.Theyseemlackofinterestsinclassandeasilydistracted.Moreseriously，certainmigrantstudentsskipclasses.Fromthebehaviorside，thefrequencyofproblembehavioroccursamongmigrantchildrenismuchhigherthanurbanchildren（Wang，Wu&Shen，2005）.Forinstance，someofthemaredisrespectfultoteachers.Therefore，teachersheldtheopinionthatmigrantstudentsdisturbedtheatmosphereofschools.

　　Hence，recently，frominthecentralleadershiptotheordinarypeople，migrantchildren'seducationproblemhasdrawnhighattention.Inthepoliticallevel，thePRC’sgovernmenthasissuedcertainregulationstoguaranteetheeducationalrightofmigrantchildren.Forinstance，theMinistryofEducation（MOE）ofthePRCissued流动儿童少年就学暂行办法（TemporarySolutiontotheEducationalProblemofMigrantChildren）in1998indicatethatlocalgovernmentshouldberesponsibleformigrantchildrenandstateschoolsshouldacceptmigrantchildrenunconditionally（Liu，2003）And关于进一步做好进城务工就业农民子女义务教育意见（thefurthersolutiontotheEducationalProblemofMigrantChildren）addressedin2003（MOE，2003）clearedtheprocedurehowmigrantstudentsenrolledinstateschools.Unfortunately，thesetworegulationsdonotsolvetheproblemandthearticlewillexplainthereasonslater.

　　2.Therecommendations

　　AccordingtotheeighthtermofChina’sCompulsoryEducationLaw，“compulsoryeducationisundertheleadershipofthestatecouncil，butisresponsibletolocalplacesbyhierarchicalmanagement”（PRC，1998，p.58）.Itmeanslocalgovernmentsareresponsibleforthecompulsoryeducationofregisteredcitizens.Therefore，migrantstudentscouldbeignoredbylocalgovernmentoftheirdestinationcities.Hence，fortheauthor’srecommendation，thefirststeptosolvetheproblemistospecificthelegalresponsibilityoflocalgovernmentsformigrantstudentsanddonotonlyinflexiblybaseonHukousystem.TheCompulsoryEducationLawneedsmodificationasitisalready15yearspastthatmanynewproblemssuchasthismigrationchildrenissuehavecomeout.

　　Moreover，itcouldbearguedsupervisionisextremelysignificant.Accordingtothefundingissue，firstofallistosupervisetheprocessschoolsnottocollectofotherfeesbythemselves，especiallytheexpensivezanzhufei.Forinstance，AlthoughBeijingin2004alreadyissuedprovisionofforbadeschoolschargingzanzhufei，stilllikeotherregulationsschoolsdonotimplementitwithoutanysupervisionfromgovernment.Therefore，Ifnottodoso，nomatterhowmuchthegovernmentaidsthemigrantstudents，themoneywillflowtoschools’pocket.Simultaneously，thesupervisionofmigrantstudentsisalsoimportant.AsWang（2007）mentionedthemigrantstudentsfrequentlyleavingschoolswithoutroll-outthatdisturbedtheschool’sroutinemanagementofXueji，theregulationofmigrantchildrenisnecessaryaswell.　　Besidessupervisingthepublicschoolstonotchargeanextrafee，theChinesegovernmentmayprovidesupport（teacher，staffandfunding）forpublicschoolsthatenrolledmigrantschools（ChenandYang，2010）.Becauseoneofthereasonswhypublicschoolschargesextrafeesistheburdenofreceivingmigrantstudentswithoutanyfinancialsupportsfromlocalgovernments.Formigrantschools，governmentsmayoffersupportforlicensedmigrantschoolsandencouragednon-licensedmigrantschoolstotransformtolicensedmigrantschools.Itisbettertoprovidecertainmonthsforunlicensedschoolstogetofficiallicenseorfindingotherschoolsforstudentswhoarestudyingintheseschools.

　　Furthermore，thedevelopmentofmigrantworkers’educationallevelissignificantsinceLiang