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 Dandelion School,
a nonprofit educational institute located in Daxing District, the
outskirt area of Beijing City, is the first and only middle school
built especially for the children from low-income migrant families in
Beijing. It is now in the process of establishment and opened its
doors in middle of August 2005.
School has defined its mission as: Giving back the right to quality education to migrant children.
Founders
and teachers of the school share the following understanding about
education: Through education we nurture a child's character, by
nurturing a child's character we make the world better.
The
school follows the guidance of the State Compulsory Education Law. And
all teachers possess State Teaching Certificates. In addition to the
state curriculum, the school will develop courses to meet the special
needs of migrant children. The school will accept 7th and 8th grade
students this year. A full range of middle school will be established
within two years. This will prepare the children well for continuing
their high school education or vocational education.
Dandelion
School occupies about 18 Chinese Mu with 24 large classrooms. In order
to provide basic study condition that many children do not have at
home, school now has the facility to board about 540 students. Standard
Physics, Chemistry. Biology and computer labs are also built. A music
room, art studio and a workshop have been built as well.
Background Information
There
are 130 million migrant population in China currently. Among them
80,000,000 are peasant workers, and over 20 million are children of
school age. About 25% of them are living under poverty line. According
to China's education law, nine years of compulsory education is a basic
right for children. However, the right-to-education of the children
from poor migrant families has been largely neglected.
The
current residential registration system and low level of income are the
two major barriers for these children to enter either public schools or
private schools. Desirable policies and actions that can move toward
solving this problem are not in position yet.
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