Global Voices kicked off a discussion on the school fees in China, and many bloggers are concerned on the topic. From Global Voices:

“With the stepped-up developing of industrialization and urbanization in China, there’re more and more rural migrant workers in the cities. Consequently, the question that their children accept compulsory education comes out outstandingly. The report of the 17th CPC National Congress has clearly put forward that the equal rights to accept compulsory education of the migrant workers’ children should be guaranteed,” said Yuan Guiren, Chinese Vice Education Minister, at the CPC press conference last Saturday. Although Mr. Yuan has strongly emphasized the equal education rights for the migrant workers’ children, the tough reality which Netease blogger jzh8434 has depicted still makes some migrant parents worried if they can find an adequate school for their children next term. [Full Text]

Can You Afford such schooling?

AuthorÔºöWo Dengni (jzh8434) 2007-09-19 13:08:39

Now if I talk about the difficulties that children go to school, people might think that the government has issued lots of policies on exemption from paying tuition and incidental fees etc, so there won’t be any problems to go to school, or at least it will be very easy. But the fact is not what people have imagined. It is really that the higher have policies while the lower own ways of getting around them. Let me talk about something happened around me.

Last year it’s our colleagues that looked for school for their kids. They had devoted all their efforts and visited a lot of schools, however, every time they turned them down for the same reason that the school didn’t receive migrants. I was really wondering why they didn’t receive migrants. Couldn’t the migrant workers’ children study here? It’s really difficult to understand. Finally, thanks to our company secretary’s good relation, he pulled strings with a school’s principal. At last, the principal allowed their children to register when the term had begun for a while. Although all of their kids only went to the kindergarten and the eldest one was just old enough to go to the top class, it is said the schooling fees came to 2200 RMB a term and it seemed to rise to 2400 RMB this year. However, it looked the locals didn’t have to pay so much. What a wonderful way to make money!

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