“On the other hand,” she added, “their returning home could boost the culturaldevelopment and civilization process of the rural areas.”
Women who return from cities usually have a greater sense of self-awareness and caremore about their children’s education, compared with those who never left home, saidMeng.
Yang agreed and said she hopes, like all parents, that her twins enjoy a better life thanshe has.
“I don’t want them to stay here,” she said, referring to the village. “I hope they’ll dowell in school. I regret not taking school seriously myself.”
“I don’t want my son to be like me, working for others,” said Zhou, echoing herneighbor’s sentiments. Looking at her son, Wang Zi, which means “prince”, she added: “Iwant him to spend some years at school and (get out of the village) in the future.
“Life at home in the village is pretty boring,” she said.
November 16, 2010
Getting past the class divide
As farmers flock to Shanghai for a better future, they find an invisible barrier between their children and local students.
Qian Yanfeng reports from Shanghai.
When Wang Zefang arrived for his first class at Gaojin No 3 Middle School two yearsago, he was among thousands included in Shanghai’s trailblazing plans to integratechildren of migrant workers into free mainstream education.
Before then, State-run and public schools were closed to families without hukou(permanent residency), forcing them to pay for their children to attend private but poorinstitutes.
Yet, despite being taught alongside his native peers, 16-year-old Wang is under noillusion that the invisible fence between them has been knocked down.
Of the 300 migrant children who arrived at the Baoshan district school in 2008,Wang was one of a handful admitted into regular classes. The others are housed in aseparate school building, wear an alternative uniform and have different teachers andtextbooks. Even meal times and finishing times are different.
“I feel distinct discrimination against us, it has just been brought inside the schoolwalls,” said Wang, who had to pass an exam to be accepted into the main school.
Teachers warned his class to stay clear of the migrant children, describing them as“wild”, “lacking in manners” and “poor”.
“Because of the divide, I have not talked to any students in the other buildingall semester,” he said, adding that he can imagine “how sad they must feel facing suchsegregation on a daily basis”.
Although Wang is one of the lucky ones, he explained that his younger sister, WangXuemeng, is on the other side of the fence at a public school in neighboring Yangpudistrict.
“The conditions are better there than the private school she used to go to but sheoften complains of unfair treatment and is not happy,” said the concerned brother. “Shesays both the teachers and parents (with hukou) feel migrant worker families set a badexample, so they are not friendly towards them.”
Almost 20 percent of Shanghai’s population is made up of farmers who flock to themetropolis each year in search of better salaries, bringing with them more than 400,000children.
For years under the hukou system, migrant children have been unable to enjoy thenine years of compulsory education in their adopted homes, creating a huge demand forprivate schools.
However, in recent years Shanghai has been among the first Chinese cities to closesuch facilities - most of which suffer a lack of resources and poor standards - and enrollstudents at public schools as part of a nationwide campaign.
The city government also bought several decent private schools and injected morefunds to improve standards.
Most of the 100 or so private schools in Baoshan district, an area popular withmigrants due to its cheap housing, were shuttered by 2008, with only 16 primaries keptopen to cater to 14,000 students. About 40,000 other youngsters were spread out acrossthe district’s public schools, authorities reported.
Shanghai’s educational commission stated that, by the end of the year, all migrantchildren in the city will have access to its free compulsory education.
No discrimination
The program has been hailed as a significant step in the reform of China’s educationsystem, yet the segregation of students from different backgrounds (the exact number ofschools doing so is not available but experts suggest it is common practice) has sparkedfresh concerns over the equality of education in the country.
“Students like us have to be outstanding to be allowed into public schools and get the samestandard of education as the locals. If not, we’re placed in separate classes,” said Wang Zefang.
There are still limits to what migrant children can accomplish, he said, “such as itwould be impossible for me to get into a first-class public schools no matter how well Iperform.”
Yu Haizhou, head of Gaojin No 3 Middle School, denied any suggestion the schooldiscriminates against migrants by putting them in different classrooms.
“We used to have 600 students, so you can imagine what a big burden on oureducational resources it was to take in 300 students all at once,” he told China Daily. “Wemade the most convenient choice and maintained a division between them.
“It’s a question of management, not discrimination,” he insisted, adding that hugedifferences in study levels also posed difficulties.
Migrant children in Shanghai use nationally standardized textbooks, while natives usebooks produced locally, which are far advanced in some subjects, particularly English.
“Also, migrant students are not allowed to sit secondary school and college entranceexaminations in Shanghai (or in any other city where they do not have hukou),” he said.
“They have to return to their hometown, where the test will be based on the nationallystandardized textbooks.
“So it really doesn’t make sense to teach these students together with the locals,” thehead teacher added.