BLACKBOARD BUNGLE: BEIJING SCHOOL CLOSINGS UPSET

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIJING 022842

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/30/2031
TAGS: PGOV PHUM SOCI CH
SUBJECT: BLACKBOARD BUNGLE: BEIJING SCHOOL CLOSINGS UPSET
MIGRANTS


Classified By: Political Section Internal Unit Chief Susan A. Thornton.
Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
--------------


1. (C) The Beijing city government's decision to shut
down dozens of independent schools catering to migrant
children has been a contentious topic among
principals, scholars and the media this fall.
Although relaxed residence permit rules now allow the
children of Beijing's surging migrant worker
population to attend public schools alongside their
urban counterparts, bureaucratic burdens and arbitrary
fees force many students into private schools of
varying quality designed specially for migrant
children. Our contacts said a thirst for new revenue
is the authorities' main motivation, adding that the
public schools are keen to collect fees from students
who were previously outside the system. Migrant
activists downplayed rumors that the shutdowns presage
a campaign to sweep the mobile labor force out of
Beijing prior to the 2008 Olympics. Nonetheless, the
closings have angered migrants. One principal's
protest ended in violence. Sociologists worry that
youths facing poor education and employment prospects
could form the foundation of a new underclass, posing
a threat to social stability. End Summary.

Order Affects Thousands of Students
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2. (C) The Beijing City Government's July 12
directive to shut down unregistered schools is
affecting tens of thousands of students, many of them
the children of migrant workers. Media reports
indicate that some 370,000 migrant children live in
Beijing, of whom about 280,000 attend privately run
schools. Our contacts told us these numbers are
almost certainly low. While reliable statistics are
hard to come by, principals and representatives of
NGOs that work with migrants estimated that there are
700,000 to 800,000 migrant children in the capital.
Calling for the "strengthening and standardization of
the security situation at unsanctioned schools for
migrant worker children," the order specified that
Beijing's district authorities must reduce enrollment
at some schools, bring other schools up to city
standards so they can be officially accredited -- and
close down the rest.


3. (C) The biggest obstacle to accreditation is
schools' inability to meet city standards for
playground space, but classroom size and teachers'
qualifications are also problems, said Wang Kan
(protect),a program officer at Oxfam Beijing who
works with migrant advocacy groups. The independent
schools charge about RMB 700, or USD 90, per semester
per student, slightly less than a migrant worker's
average monthly wage. Some migrants can enroll their
children in regular Beijing schools if they can afford
out-of-district tuition and other administrative fees.
By law, migrant students are entitled to tuition
waivers at public schools. But in reality, the
bureaucratic hurdles are so high that only a handful
meet the qualification requirements. To be found
eligible, migrant parents must provide volumes of
paperwork, including among others a) a work permit or
proof of salary and b) proof of address in Beijing.
Given the general lack of written labor contracts,
along with the informal nature of most rental
agreements, both documents are hard for most migrants
to produce. One NGO involved in migrant issues told
Wang that not a single family they work with has
succeeded in obtaining a tuition waiver from the
Beijing government.

Filling Coffers and Classrooms
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4. (C) Our contacts said one of the city's main
motivations for imposing the new rules is money. With
thousands of pupils enrolled outside the public school
system, education officials see a loss of potential
revenue, said Li Qiang (protect),Dean of the School
of Humanities at Tsinghua University. Although
primary school education is officially free throughout
China, in reality schools levy a raft of fees to cover
the cost of textbooks, sports equipment and other
items. Moreover, schools in some districts of Beijing
are not filled to capacity because of the effects of

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the one-child policy, Li said, adding that the
directive amounts to a clumsy attempt to boost
enrollment. An article on the school closings in the
influential biweekly Caijing Magazine by Ren Bo, an
expert on rural-urban migration issues, reinforced
this point. Ren wrote that under-enrolled schools are
not located in areas where migrants live. For
example, about 2,000 migrant children reside near the
independent Xingzhi Hope Primary School in Beijing's
Haidian District. But the local public school closest
to Xingzhi Hope, Tangjiafeng Primary School, can only
accommodate 600 students.

An Olympic Facelift?
--------------


5. (C) Beyond a thirst for new sources of funding,
politics and face motivate the Beijing City
Government, said Wang Yi (protect),former principal
of the New Millennium primary school, which was
shuttered in September. Wang speculated that three
main considerations are driving the directive:

-- Safety issues. There are legitimate concerns about
safety and sanitation standards because many
independent schools are overcrowded and occupy the
shabbiest buildings, which offer cheap rent, Wang
said.

-- Fear of losing promotions or being held
accountable. Local-level cadres are convinced that no
matter how spotless their records, one disaster can
cost a promotion or even one's scalp, Wang related.
(Note: In the wake of a flood at a primary school
that killed more than 80 students in June 2005 in
Heilongjiang Province, 10 police and party officials
were imprisoned for negligence. A July 2006 notice
from the Ministry of Education stated that school
principals and local education officials would be held
responsible in the event of serious accidents. End
note.)

-- An Olympic facelift. Wang said city officials are
under pressure to tidy the city for the 2008 Games. A
cleanup of dilapidated, substandard schools catering
to the country's have-nots would deprive foreign
journalists of a story that might portray China in an
unflattering light.


6. (C) Our contacts dismissed the idea that the
school closings signal the incipient stages of a
"sweep" meant to clear the city of migrants before the
Olympics. "Migrant workers are tough," said Wei Wei
(protect),founder of Little Bird, an NGO that
advocates on behalf of migrant workers. It would take
a lot more than closing down a few schools to get
migrants to move out of Beijing. Besides, Wei Wei
added that without the mobile labor force, the Olympic
venues would not be completed on time.

Erratic and Violent Enforcement
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7. (C) Against this backdrop, authorities are
enforcing the order inconsistently, Wang Yi said,
adding that district officials have not revealed how
they make decisions about closings. Until last
summer, he was principal of the independent New
Millennium School. In July, Haidian district
officials informed him that the city requires a school
to have an operating budget of at least RMB 150,000
(USD 18,750) and a minimum amount of space for the
physical plant, among other qualifications. New
Millennium met some of the benchmarks but not others,
and no one conducted an inspection, Wang related. To
his surprise, the Haidian district government ordered
the school closed, shutting out some 430 students and
19 teachers. The facility was subsequently bulldozed.
At the same time, many schools in Beijing that have
received orders to shut their doors continue to
conduct classes without consequence, Ren Bo reported
in Caijing.


8. (C) But remaining open carries risks. Wang
related that southwest Beijing's Daxing district,
whose inexpensive housing attracts many migrants, has
taken especially harsh measures to implement the July
order. One school principal, an acquaintance of
Wang's, refused to suspend classes and arrived at
school one morning to find the front gate padlocked.
After the principal held class outside the gate

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anyway, "some thugs came and beat him up," causing
serious injuries, Wang reported. Wang said he
suspects the Daxing district government is behind the
attack.

An Angry Reaction
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9. (C) Migrants and educators have reacted angrily to
the directive and the closings. "The policy is a
mistake," charged Wei Wei of Little Bird. He said
many parents have approached him requesting advice on
what to do with children whose schools have been
shuttered. Little Bird is urgently trying to find
places for students in private and public schools
around the city. Separately, Wang said a group of
independent school principals has met regularly in
recent weeks and has put together a proposal to
establish special standards for private institutions.
The standards would be lower and would reflect those
in place in smaller provincial cities and towns. The
group intends to submit the proposal to the Beijing
Government in the coming weeks. "We want to start a
dialogue with the city government," Wang said,
acknowledging that often such communication can be a
challenge, especially for migrants who are not even
legal residents.

Social Risks Abound
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10. (C) Engaging in a discussion with the Beijing
authorities will be an uphill struggle, said Li of
Tsinghua. Officials do not care about migrants, who

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are considered the very lowest level of society. In
Li's view, the city should have developed a
comprehensive plan ensuring that migrant pupils all
are guaranteed enrollment in public schools. Instead,
we see at least hundreds of kids either a) on the
streets or b) crammed into other schools. City
authorities are not worried about mistreating migrants
because there is a huge reservoir of workers who are
ready to flow into the city to replace them, Li
maintained. But the danger exists that these youths,
facing poor education and employment prospects, could
form the foundation of a new underclass and pose a
threat to social stability, he commented.
Randt