School Enrollment of Migrant Children in Beijing: Practice and Problems

Qian Cai, Portland State University
Chenrong Duan, People's University of China

Migrant children in China are facing a difficult situation: where to go to school? Under the National Education Law, children can receive nine-year free compulsory education only in their place of household residence registration (hukou). Moving to the city, migrant children are left with hard choices: (1) public school, which charges high fees for non-locally registered students; (2) migrant children school, which is illegal and subject to closing at any time; and (3) no school. Using the 1997 Beijing Census of Non-Hukou Population and the 1999-2000 Beijing Survey of Migrant Children's School Enrollment, this paper examines the practice and problems of school enrollment of migrant children in Beijing, and sheds some light on policy implications.