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Survey of Poor Migrating Children

The Beijing Working Committee on Women and Children conducted a survey on children from migrating families residing in Beijing in order to portray their living and education conditions. The survey is the first of its kind in China.

The survey reveals that almost all the children could fulfill "nine years compulsory education," however a large proportion of them study under poor conditions. Seventy percent of them live in single-story buildings (in Beijing, such kind of buildings are usually old, wretched and poorly equipped); 10 percent live in basements; 4 four percent live in sheds or mobile flats; only 2 percent of interviewed families had their own apartment. One third of such families live in crowded single rooms which can only provide less than five square meters for each family member on average, where children have to do homework outside the building if parents are cooking.

More than 40 percent of children do not have their own desk and one third of them do their homework on small dinner tables. Many others do their homework on small chairs, cupboards, beds, even lap boards; the uncomfortable study facilities may damage their eyes and bones.

Not as fortunate as children living in other urban families, 38.8 percent do not get a penny of pocket money. As for those that do, most of them have 5 to 10 yuan for a week. Since their parents are early to rise and late to rest and often ignore their children’s dinner, the pocket money is mainly used for food which is sold from street peddlers with little quality guarantee. No more than half of the children drink milk, more than 10 percent of them have never drunk milk since they came to Beijing.

What concerns their parents most is tuition. According to the survey, the average monthly income of these migrating families is about 1,000 yuan, and among the families, one third belong to "urban poverty groups."  Education expenditure represents a big part of their family spending. Only the fee that they have to pay the school as outsiders may account for 10 percent of a family's income, besides that there are tuitions and other expenditures on books, insurance and uniforms.

According to the survey, 72.2 percent of these children go to public schools, which help them merge into city life. There are also some special schools set aside for migrating families. Although these schools cannot match public ones in terms of facilities and teaching quality, children are fond of them because these schools meet their basic education requirements.

Growing up in Beijing, the children share a similar outlook of other Beijing children. In both public and special schools, the overwhelming majority of these migrating-family children (95 percent) dream to go to college, only 1.6 percent are just satisfied with graduation from junior high school. To be a teacher, a scientist, a policeman or a doctor is the primary professional dream of these children. Surprisingly, the survey indicates that children who want to be policemen after they grow up represent an unexpected proportion. This is quite different from the survey result of other Beijing children, for whom being a policeman is ruled out from the top 10.

(China.org.cn by Li Liangdu, July 26, 2003)

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