Now, more and more migrant children have the same chance with children in the city having the same right of receiving good education. They also can sit in the bright classroom to listen to the lectures by teachers. However, are their psychological situations as healthy as children in the city? These days, journalist visited several migrant children schools to do some research about this problem.

"I want to try my best to be a good student, too"

Xiao Bin is one of students in a migrant children school in Shijingshan, Beijing. When he was interviewed, he sat on the sofa of headmaster office and trembled. He was so nervous that keeping silence several times when the journalist asked him questions.

One hour ago, he had a fight with another student and was pushed on the floor. If it was discovered by a teacher on time, the situation might be worse.

This fourteen-year boy has the same character with all the other teenagers: rebel, but there is something on him different from other kids. He is confused about his future. "I don't know what to do in the future, and I don't know what my hobby is either. I have already changed three schools. I don't care whether I am a good student or not."

Xiaobin's parents have already worked in Beijing for more than ten years. Now, they operate a small restaurant in Haidian, Beijing. They are busy to take care of the business and pay no attention on Xiaobin's education.

"I want to try my best to be a good student, too, but it is hard to build interest to study." Xiaobin said. "I always watch TV when I at home, or go to internet café to play computer games. My parents don't have time to take care of me, and my mom always says that I am a bad boy." Xiaobin does not like to go home. He always lies to teachers that he is going to the toilet and skips classes. He even escape from home and school and not back for whole night.

The headmaster of this school said some of the students are afraid of teacher's visiting to families, so they give school wrong home numbers and addresses purposely. If there are any problems, teachers are really hard to communicate with parents.

"Of course, they can't be responsible for all the problems. Home education and social environment have significant effects when they are growing up. The society should provide a fair atmosphere to help them growing up, and we cannot label them as 'bad kids'."

"We should help them build confidence"

"We should not only give them the chance to go to school, but also make sure that they get good education." The headmaster of Shuren School in Shijingshan Beijing, Zhao Shengjie, said so.

Zhao Shengjie thinks that providing education to migrant children is a social issue. It is hard to solve this problem only by schools for two reasons. One is their character of moving from one place to another. This makes school difficult to administrate. The second is the education levels of parents are limited, and they are busy to find jobs to survive, so they have no time to think of their children's future.

According to statistics, up to 2005, there are nearly four hundred thousand migrant workers' children go to school from Grade 1 to Grade 9. Now, there are fourty-nine migrant wokers' children schools have already been examined and accepted by the government. They also take some advantages from government policies. The government emphasized "they should be treated equally as other schools on charging and getting government financial aids". However, the journalist found that some of the migrant workers' children are really difficult to used to the city culture.

Dandelion school is one of the migrant children's schools in Daxing, Beijing. The journalist discovered that some students consider school as their real home instead of their own homes. "I lived with my grandma since I wan born. Until I was twelve, I lived with my parents. I don't have a lot to talk to them" said by one girl in Grade 7.

"Many kids respond a lot of problems about living too early, which make them very mature" said by the art teacher, Zhang Yong. Many kids need to help their parents working as soon as they arrive home. They hardly have time to study. "Even though they are more mature than other city children, they are self-contemptuous. They always feel they are worse than others."

"I am afraid of being looked down by others, so I don't dare to talk to them" Xiaoqing (not real name) told the journalist. (To be continued)

(2006-6-3　Workers' Daily)