A boy stands in front of New Hope School, an unlicensed migrant children’s school in Haidian district, which was demolished last week. Photo: CFP
If there is such a thing as Tiger Mom in China, Fang Lian is surely one as she seems ready to pounce.
Her eyebrows knit together and she's furious but not because her child has been inattentive at piano lessons. She's upset with the Beijing municipal government which is forcing her son's school to close.
"Why would they shut down this school?" said the 42-year-old mother from Bengbu, Anhui Province, who has sold vegetables in Beijing for a decade but has no claim to permanent residency status.
"Where am I supposed to send my kid? Don't they care about the education of our children?" said the bewildered mother who has been through this once before with terrible results.
Her 12-year-old son, Wang Huichen, along with some 500 other children of migrant workers who live and work in the capital, attended Yuhong School, a privately-run elementary school near the South Fifth Ring Road in Daxing district of Beijing.
Founded in 1998, Yuhong is one of more than 130 unlicensed schools for migrant children that operate outside Beijing's public education system. In yet another citywide sweep that began in May at least a dozen of the privately-run schools for migrantchildren have been ordered to close. Some have already been demolished.
40,000 displaced students
With the fall semester about to start, where the 40,000 displaced students will attend school remains an unanswered question for many.
In northern Haidian district, what used to be a school for 1,400 migrant children is now a pile of rubble. Hongxing School, which was established 12 years ago, was forcibly demolished last week. Desks, chairs and even electric fans and heaters have been buried under the ruins. At least two other schools have been shut down in the past week.
Many parents aren't yet aware their children's school won't open for the new semester. "How can they demolish it just like that?" said a father from Shanxi Province whose 12-year-old daughter attends the school. He's made four attempts to register his daughter in a public school.
Around the corner from the demolished school the local government has set up an office to register the students in public schools, but fewer than 100 have so far qualified. The migrant parents are required to produce a temporary resident's permit, employment certificate, proof of a residence in Beijing, and proof that their child doesn't have a guardian in their hometown.
In Chaoyang district, at least nine schools have been ordered shut down. The district government dispatched security guards and city management officers known as "chengguan" to guard the doors of each of the schools. The parents of the 6,000 students who attend the schools were told they could send their children to another school but it sits in the middle of a demolished village more than five kilometers away.
On Monday, about 300 agitated parents managed to get their kids into Dongba Shiyan School which started the new semester earlier than most. It had been ordered to shut down in July and was guarded by security guards. The school's electricity and water had been cut off a week ago.
"The guards tried to stop the parents but they couldn't. We still have about 300 kids coming," said Principal Wan Tianbing, who founded the school in 2003 and had 1,300 students last semester. Wan borrowed a gas generator to provide electricity for the students returning this week.
Millions spent on renovations
In the southern Daxing district, the principals of both Yuhong and Tianyuan schools each invested over 1.5 million yuan to upgrade school buildings as required by local education authorities last year.
Still the local government issued a closure notice last May because the schools were determined to be illegal or posed safety and health risks. The schools are still defying the order, demanding the kids be properly transferred first.
"We did everything they asked us to do, and they are still shutting us down. It doesn't make any sense," said Zhang Mingrui, principal of Tianyuan School.
Some principals say the city plans to shut down all illegal schools for migrant children by the end of this year or early next and local governments are now tightening the noose.
The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education admitted at a press conference on Tuesday that it plans to close illegal schools but promised the students will not go without an education.
Illegal schools opened years ago
There are an estimated 180 privately operated elementary schools for migrant children but only 50 are licensed. Most of the schools, including kindergartens, have been operating for many years and are frequently pressured by authorities who threaten to shut them down.
The leaders of the migrant schools say the city's policies are often confusing and inconsistent. In 2006 the city also launched a major crackdown on unlicensed schools and promised to transfer all kids to the public system. That plan failed as there were not enough places in the public schools to accommodate all the kids.
400,000 migrant children in Beijing
There are over 400,000 migrant children in Beijing and over 70 percent currently attend public schools, according to official statistics. The authorities say they intend to register 80 percent of migrant children in public schools over the next couple of years.
If that happens it would add an additional 40,000 students to Beijing public schools which are already operating at fullcapacity.
"They find all kinds of excuses, they just don't want to accept our kids," said Gong Weiqi, 39, from Shanxi Province. His 9-year old son attended Lüyuan School in Haidian, which was shut down last week.
The children of Beijing's migrant workers also face other social hurdles if they're lucky enough to get admitted into the city's public school system, "Even if he gets in, how is my boy going to fit in with city kids?" said Fang Lian. "They don't even dress the
same."
Forcing migrants to leave Beijing
"It's the government's attempt at getting rid of the migrant population," said Tian Kun, a Beijing-lawyer and advocate for the rights of migrant children.
"They are targeting the kids and hoping the parents will just leave the capital."
The latest population census show Beijing has over 19 million residents and about one third are from other provinces and regions. They are being blamed for worsening traffic congestion and rising housing prices. The city has issued regulations making it harder for non Beijing permanent residents to buy a house and a car.
Many migrants have spent decades building a life in Beijing after leaving their countryside hometowns that couldn't support them and offered few opportunities for their children.
"We have a stable life here, we can't go back and start over again," said Gong the father of a 9-year-old. He and his wife have lived in Beijing for five years and own a barber shop in Haidian. They earn a decent wage of about 7,000 yuan a month.
"The closing of the schools is going to cause kids to drop out of school or force them back to their hometown without their parents," said Principal Zhang Mingrui.
An estimated 58 million children have been left in rural areas while their parents work in cities, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in June.
Won't let it happen to her son
Tiger Mom Fang Lian said she won't repeat the same mistake twice. When her daughter couldn't get into a school in Beijing she had to send her back to her hometown in Anhui despite the girl's protest.
The daughter's ailing grandparents were unable to care for the girl and she soon quit her rural school and went to work inGuangdong Province. She moved in with a boy and was pregnant at 18.
Fang has disowned her daughter. "I'm not going to let the same thing happen to my son," said the protective mother.
"They shut us down, but what are they going to do with the kids? They don't have a clue how to solve the education issue," said Xie Zhenqing, principal of Hongxiong School which was forcibly demolished.
Many experts agree the government hasn't fully realized that there's the need for schools for migrant children and forcing them to shut down is only creating a larger problem. "The parents voluntarily send their kids to such schools because they don't have better options," said Jia Xijin, a professor of public policy at Tsinghua University.
Jia said the government has made a good gesture offering to include more kids in Beijing's public schools. "But clearly this hasn't happened and that's why there's a demand for these schools," she said.
Fang, the determined, anxious mother is feeling backed into a corner as she worries about her family's future in Beijing.
"Unless the policy says all out-of-towners must leave Beijing, it's just not fair. Do we deserve to starve to death?" she asked.
