Migrant children educated in Beijing

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

There was an article in the CS Monitor on 7/11/08 about the children of migrant workers in Beijing that have no right to be there because they have no work permit papers. The articles was really interesting because it mentions that the migrant workers are often not very well educated themselves and are in Beijing to better their economic situation. I thought that it was interesting because the desires and difficulties of many of these children seem to be similar to out students and their families. They move because they want something better and are often limited because they are not legally supposed to be where they are, they constantly move and are at the bottom of the socio economic ladder. I think however, that the China case is different because these are internal migrant that have no right to be in the city from the provinces. Perhaps it is just something else that China has to consider as they expand economically.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0711/p05s01-woap.html

[Anonymous]

Interestng. When I began reading your post, I immediately thought of our students, or at least my students who are predominatley Latino and many of whom deal with a similar situation. Depending on the age group of your students, it might be worth examining with your students. Maybe they could compare the differences for themselves.

[Anonymous]

I think that just about any age can compare and contrast with the experiences of themselves and other immigrant children. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Anonymous]

The article makes me want to make comparisons to schools in Los Angeles. My ears were perking when I read that the school in Beijing had 40 teachers per 1000 students. I was thinking what's their class size? To a journalist 1000 students may sound like a big number, but when you do the math, it amounts to 25 students per teacher. So the class size may not really be an issue, but I am sure the school faces many challenges. Having learned some about Chinese history now, I am not surprised that education has a high value in this culture. It seems that scholarship has almost been a religion for thousands of years. However, the drive to learn is global. Child-soldiers in Congo, after having been reunited with their families have only one wish - go to school. By the way, as far as I am informed, in Cameroon all elementary students pay tuition - even in public schools. I wonder what the situation is in China. Is education free? Does anybody know?

Alfons[Edit by="agreber on Jul 23, 6:15:49 PM"][/Edit]

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