Yantian Village: attracting and retaining migrant workers
- By Lu Na
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E-mail China.org.cn, April 27, 2015
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Xinguan residents enjoy their weekend at a park in Yantian Village. [Photo by Zou Yi/China Pictorial] |
In order to retain high-quality technical personnel, Yantian tries its best to perfect the public facilities as well as improve their living standard. "We have two high-quality public primary schools and are open to the migrant workers," Deng Manchang, director of the village committee, said. "It still can't meet the requirements. We will try our best to build more schools."
As the village is close to Shenzhen, the living expenses are very high. Deng said that the village will decrease the living expenses to give the workers better lives.
Built in 1932, Yantian Primary School, one of the two public primary schools in Yantian Village, has opened only for the children of people from Xinguan since 2008. It now has 1,385 students and all of them are from Xinguan. The president of the school said it is the first public school that only accepts migrant workers' children in Dongguan City.
Zhentian Primary School, another primary school in Yantian Village, has 1,394 students and 70 percent of them are from Xinguan. "We offer free Children's Palace events for all students apart from those from ordinary classes," Wang Guiqun, president of Zhentian Primary School said. "Every student has at least one extra class such as singing, dancing and playing football and all training is free to every student."
Zhentian Primary School features superb teaching facilities such as huge projection in every classroom, professional dance rooms and a plastic gym area.
Although migrant workers can enjoy free and quality education at these two schools, the education resources are still far from enough. More importantly, the school enrolls students by accumulating points in many aspects such as the educational background of parents and how long have they worked in Yantian. It turned down many migrant workers who are new to the village or who didn't receive a higher education.
"There are six private junior high schools and one public junior high school in Fenggang Town, so the competition is fiercer," the president of Yantian Primary School said, "People from Xinguan send their children to study in the public junior high school and private school if they have good grades or enough money. However, others will send their children back to their hometown."
Yang Yulian, a migrant worker in Yantian, has a 12-year-old daughter. "She came here three years ago and is now in the sixth grade at a private school," She said. "We were preparing for her to go to the public junior high school of Fenggang Town and we accumulated a score of 298. However, we are not sure whether she can go to the school or not because it only has 86 spots for migrant workers in Yantian Village."
Children who can't go to public schools can either choose go to the six private middle schools in Fenggang or go back to their hometown. New Century School, one of the top private schools in Yantian Village of Fenggang Town, has four divisions including a kindergarten, primary school, and junior and senior high schools.
Since 2004, 24 students from the school were matriculated by Tsinghua University and Peking University. It has 3,000 local students and 200 students from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and other countries.
Although private schools in Yantian Village offer amazing facilities and teaching resources, their high tuition fees scare many Xinguan residents away. New Century School is a boarding school and it charges 13,000 yuan (US$2096.9) in tuition fees per semester, which is a large amount for a migrant worker.
In addition, lots of people from Xinguan expressed their loneliness and some of them are feeling very homesick. Yantian offers great working opportunities and better education and healthcare insurance. However, it also has high house prices and living expenses, as well as fierce competition for school enrollment.
Quoting a sentence said by Deng Manchang, director of the village committee: "Yantian will try its best to attract and retain talents." But in order to retain talents, it still needs to improve in many areas.
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