Wall between pupils casts shame on a local government

AFTER ITS CAMPUS was claimed by the local government, a private elementary school opened for migrant workers’ children in Suzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province, was instructed to move to a nearby public school on Sept 1, which has incurred opposition from the parents of the children attending the public school. To soothe their anger, the education bureau of Suzhou has ordered an iron fence to be built on campus to separate the private school from the public one. Beijing News comments:

The education bureau’s solution is morally flawed, and is suspected of violating the Education Law, as it is comparable to a segregation system that discriminates against the migrant workers’ children.

The government should have stuck to its guns and merged the two schools as originally planned.

The migrant workers’ children deserve a place in the public school, the only one in the neighborhood, which is obliged to provide education to local children, according to the Compulsory Education Law. Although the parents may not be able to afford a local home, they work and live there, and pay taxes to the local government. There is no reason to discriminate against their children.

However, the public school is a prestigious one. To secure a seat in it, one must have a local hukou, (household registration) and more importantly a home in the residential communities earmarked for it, properties which cost millions of yuan to buy.

So the parents’ discontent is understandable.

The government should increase their input and support to the school to meet the new demands coming from the new pupils, guaranteeing the school’s education quality does not decrease.

And it should have been more proactive and engaged in communication with all relevant parties.