[Vnbiz] Taking care of our students - in DC

[Khanh Truong Xuan]

Hello  every body,

I just read this article on Wall street journal, and I think it may be
relevant to the discussion about education in Vietnam we have recently. In
addition to privatize the education sector, and have more choices of
textbook in school, I think it is very important to make education more and
more accessible to all the children in Vietnam, especially in the poor area.
The success/failure of economics reform in China has many things for us to
learn and this story reminds us about it.

Have a great day you all.

Khanh


*As China Booms, Millions of Children Are Left Behind --- Families Split as
Parents Move to Cities for Work; Coming Home to the Dogs *
By Loretta Chao
1270 words
24 January 2007
The Wall Street Journal <javascript:void(0)>
A1
English
(Copyright (c) 2007, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)

YINGSHANG, China -- In a sparsely furnished farmhouse, about a half mile
from a main road in the poor, rural province of Anhui, 16-year-old Zhao Yan
has lived on her own for more than two years.

She goes to school, tends to the family rice farm and waits for her father's
periodic visits home. "I miss my dad a lot," says the teen, dressed in jeans
and a lime-colored hooded sweatshirt.

Chinese authorities estimate that 22 million youngsters in China have been
left at home while their parents migrate to cities to find work. The numbers
of the so-called liushou ertong, or "left behind children," are growing
steadily in China's vast rural areas. They represent a personal toll of
China's explosive growth.

As China's economy booms, some 200 million farmers are moving to cities to
pursue opportunities. China's laws make it almost impossible for migrants to
school and care for their children where they find work. With little money,
many simply leave them behind and hope for the best.

Zhao Yan's father, Zhao Changliang, a farmer, left his land and only
daughter two years ago. His wife died when Zhao Yan was a little girl. When
she was old enough to cook for herself, he paid 200 yuan, or about $25, for
a ride with neighbors to Shanghai, joining more than eight million migrants
who have left Anhui to find work in China's urban centers.

Many of the left-behind children stay with one parent. But over 30% of the
children of migrants are left with grandparents or with other relatives with
little or no supervision, according to a 2004 survey by the China National
Institute for Educational Research.

The problem is tearing apart families and creating a generation of children
who grow up with limited contact with their parents and little adult
supervision. Teachers in provinces such as Anhui say it is common to visit
or call a student's home only to find there is no adult in charge.

In one Anhui compound where a cluster of families have created a small
community, an elderly man and his wife are the guardians of five children
under the age of 6, whose parents work year-round in Shanghai.

"Most of the children are still too young to know the difference, but the
oldest one cries every New Year when they leave," he says, pointing to his
granddaughter. "There's no choice in the matter. This is the way things are
these days."

Wu Peigen, a 14-year-old middle-school student in the same county, says his
father left to find work when he was in first grade. After working several
years in a neighboring province, his father's health began to deteriorate.
Last July, Peigen's mother went to care for him. Peigen now lives with his
grandparents.

"I didn't totally understand at the time. I was just sad," says Peigen, who
especially misses his mother on weekends. He says his parents "told me to
listen to my grandparents. My mom was sad and she cried. I don't know when
I'll see her again." His parents call about twice a month to ask him how
he's doing in school.

On most days, Zhao Yan wakes early, then takes a 30-minute bicycle ride to
school. She returns to an empty home to cook for herself. Her dogs run out
to the road at the sound of her voice when she gets close to her small brick
house. They sit by her as she begins her daily ritual of lighting a fire in
the large brick oven she uses to cook.

An elderly woman who lives next door occasionally visits, and sometimes Zhao
Yan has friends over. But the dogs and a borrowed black-and-white television
are often her only companions. The middle-school student does her homework
by the glow of the screen and listens to music videos in the unheated house.


"There isn't much to do when my father isn't here," she says.

Even though she enjoys her literature class and thinks it would be fun to be
a teacher, she has difficulty keeping up with school. Several days a
semester, she has to skip classes to work on the family farm. Going to high
school isn't likely; it would cost at least hundreds of dollars a year,
which is more than her father can afford.

Zhao Yan's father leaves about $100 for her each time he goes to the city,
usually for two to three months at a time. She uses the money to buy
groceries -- mostly vegetables, because she waits for her father to return
to eat meat, which is more expensive. Without her father around, Zhao Yan
says she sometimes skips meals. She prefers to cook for him during the Lunar
New Year and harvest seasons when he returns home for a few weeks.

As China's cities continue to develop, the government expects the
migrant-worker population -- and the numbers of left-behind children -- will
rise. The State Council Research Office reported in April that the 200
million people in nation's rural migrant-labor force make an average of
about $60 to $100 a month. Many of these workers were just getting by on
subsistence farming before leaving.

Ye Jingzhong, vice dean of the school of Humanities and Development in
Beijing's University of Agriculture, says that when children are left behind
it can lead to behavior problems and mediocre performance at school. He
blames the situation on China's hukou system, where farmers who move to
China's cities to work are placed under separate educational and housing
regulations -- meaning they can't apply for public housing and their
children have to pay higher fees to go to city schools. Though the
government has said it aims to ease the rules, revisions made to the system
in Beijing and Shanghai apply mostly to white-collar workers.

Chinese authorities created a coalition of government agencies and nonprofit
organizations in October to propose programs that can help migrant families.
No recommendations have been made yet.

Since her only relatives live about 10 miles away, Zhao Yan's friends are
her greatest support network. They ride to and from school together and
spend some weekends playing badminton or watching TV. When she needs help,
they often offer -- even when she had to fertilize a huge plot of land all
by herself.

Mr. Zhao works construction jobs and doesn't carry a cellphone, so his
daughter has to wait for him to call her neighbor's house every few weeks.
In emergencies, she borrows money from neighbors and gets medicine for
herself when she's sick.

During a trip home in November to help Zhao Yan with the harvest, Mr. Zhao's
skin was dark from working outdoors all day, and he looked older than his
50-odd years. He says he hopes that by working in the city, he will earn
enough to improve the family's living conditions. He has three children: one
son in the military, one son working as a mechanic in Shanghai and Zhao Yan.


"We need to renovate our house," he said. "One day soon, my son will come
home and we'll all need to fit in this house."

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