"About 84.6 percent migrant workers' children left at hometown, staying with their grandparents, the rest with other relatives and a few even live alone," said Wang Xiaocun who works with the Zhejiang University of Technology. "Today, more and more people take care of migrant workers, but how many people realized the problems those home-left children face?"

Rural children are hard to live in cities due to the current household registration-, economics- and education-related systems

Migrant workers have to pay additional fees if they want their children to study in city schools. Those who can not offer then have to leave their children at rural homes.

China has 150 million migrant workers, who have left about 22.9 million children at home in rural areas. The number is still increasing.

Urbanization is a trend in China's economic development process. Ren Jichang, president of Hangzhou Xuejun Middle School, said that central government's policies, like Opinions on the Resolution of Issues Concerning Migrant Workers by the State Council, have much positive influence in protecting migrant workers' legal rights. But it is still difficult for them to bring their children to cities because of limited economic ability and current social management systems related to household registration and education.

"Many cities have built schools for the children of migrant workers. But they are not enough compared with the number of children who enter cities with parents from rural areas. Hangzhou and Ningbo's middle and primary schools have already opened to the children of migrant workers, But after accepting the children of city citizens, they do not have enough capacity for the children of migrant workers," said Fu Qiping, CPC (Communist Party of China) secretary of Tengtou Village, Xiaowangmiao Town, Fenghua City, Ningbo, "Moreover, most migrant workers are not rich, and if they want their children to study in city schools, they have to pay additional fees. Those who could not offer have to leave their children at rural homes."

"Anther reason that migrant workers have to leave their children at home is because of the different educational systems in different provinces," said Ren Jichang.

Ren Jichang found many children have to return home after junior high school education. "Textbooks and materials are all different. In addition, the current educational system dose not allow students to take college entrance examination without local household registration," he added.

Home-left children lack essential family atmosphere for education

In a research report conducted by Wang Xiaocun and his students, detailed and accurate data are presented to depict a hard situation that millions of Chinese home-left children are facing.

The research shows that 69.8 percent of the guardians of the home-left children admit "talking with them only occasionally", and that only 11.3 percent of home-left children say they "will talk with their guardians when they feel upset or unhappy". In terms of attitudes towards education, 70.8 percent of these children's skipped-generation guardians and 73.1 percent of relatives say they "only take care of the children's living". "All these show that home-left children lack essential family atmosphere for education, and that trusted guardians rarely fulfill their overall responsibility over the children's education."

Boarding situation of primary schools for these home-left children in under-developed areas is also made difficult by the lack of necessary facilities. In such areas, instead of living together in boarding centers, these school-aged children are mostly taken care of individually. "During my research in a province adjacent to Zhejiang Province, I found the buildings and facilities of some rural schools are still dilapidated. In one school, 20 students live in a room of about 27 square meters." Ren Jichang said he asked the headmaster what if there was a fire accident. "The headmaster told me that there was nothing he could do but trust to luck."

The absence of their parents also poses a great problem to the healthy psychological growth of home-left children. As they cannot enjoy parental love and care in their daily life for the most part of the year, especially when in times of trouble, it is easy for them to suffer faulty personalities and psychological risks. Wang Xiaocun said his research report shows a variety of psychological problems suffered by home-left children, such as willfulness, apathy, inferiority complex and autism, sense of loneliness and helplessness. Some children even exhibit rebellious psychology and hatred towards their parents, as well as lack of self-confidence and sense of security. Besides, home-left children are also prone to illegal infringement and bodily damage from others. "A national survey conducted by the Ministry of Public Security in 2004 shows that of the criminal cases done to and by minors, most took place in rural areas; while most of the subjects involved in these cases were home-left children." Wang was much worried about this situation.

Core issues -- migrant workers' paying ability and basic living condition

"Our policy has been that industrial development brings along agricultural development, and urban development brings along rural development. We have done too little for rural education in the past. Therefore, it is never too much of investment in rural education by the central finance," Wang Xiaocun said.

"Home-left children is a new issue coming up in the country's economic and social development. Governments at all levels should pay more attention to this critical issue and take effective measures," Wang Xiaocun added.

Wang Xiaocun held that the core issues of the home-left children are the payment ability and basic living conditions of the migrant workers. He suggested that the government departments should formulate some related policies and regulations to further increase the income of migrant workers, so that they would be able to bring their children to the cities to live with them.

The second issue is the acceleration of the reform of social management system, especially the household registration system. "The essence of the reform of household registration system is not the abolishment of the existing system but the gradual weakening and then the abolishment of all the policies relating to household registration which have caused the separation of urban and rural areas. Therefore, a rational flow of labor is guaranteed to create a favorable policy environment for solving the issue of home-left children, Wang Xiaocun said.

Ren Jichang called on a policy study on the education of home-left children. According to the Compulsory Education Law, he said, the compulsory education requires children go to neighboring schools where their residence registrations are. In most cities, migrant workers are asked to pay additional fees if their children want to study in city schools. So many of them cannot afford and have to send their children back to their rural homes. To solve this problem, the government should further study and formulate policies for a comprehensive implementation of the Compulsory Education Law, like the transfer of compulsory education fee, and the cancellation of extra schooling fees and any other costs for rural children studying in cities.

Ren Jichang, along with other scholars, also called on a further improvement of rural school facilities, an increase of the investment in rural elementary education, a better boarding system, a perfection of the managerial system for home-left children, a better teaching rank, a higher level of school managerial and teaching system are also called on.

(China Development Gateway March 21, 2007)