A vocational school was opened in Beijing on Monday, offering free practical skills training to children of migrant rural families.

The Beijing BN Vocational School, the first of its kind in the capital, has enrolled 84 children from poor rural families, according to a China Daily report on Tuesday.

The school will provide free classes, textbooks, uniforms and meals over the next two years to these children who would otherwise not have access to higher education in the city.

Majors in home/property management, plumbing/air-conditioning, and technical maintenance/electrical studies are available.

Cao Qian, 17, is one of the lucky few enrolled at the school.

Although she has to spend about two hours to and from the downtown school, changing buses twice, her heart is full of joy, because she finally got an opportunity to further her education. More important, the education is free.

"When my mum saw the notice in a residential area where she does some cleaning work, she could not believe her eyes," said Cao, who followed her parents to the city last September after finishing junior middle school in her hometown of Gushi County, in central China's Henan Province.

"Our monthly household income is about 600 yuan (US$74), and we cannot afford the high tuition fees that urban schools charge," said Cao, who has been helping her parents in a paper packaging factory.

"But I want to go to school," she stressed.

However, to run a school like this is not easy. Yao Li, the school chairperson who quit her job as a general manager of a property management company, said they need at least 1 million yuan (more than US$123,000) a year, according to China Daily.

The school basically relies on donations of corporations, and it has received more than 2 million yuan (around US$247,000), said Yao, adding that the number of corporations willing to help has made her optimistic.

The chairperson pointed out that there is a shortage of skilled workers in the city.

"Urban children are not willing to take such jobs, so we open a door to children of migrant workers who want to further their education and merge into the city," said Yao.

Official figures show that there are 235,000 children of migrant workers in Beijing, and 10 percent of them have no access to higher education.

"We're the start, and I hope there can be more schools like this," Yao said.

Yao assured that the teaching staff is highly qualified. They are professors from top universities such as Tsinghua, or experts in their fields.

"We all work voluntarily," said Ji Rujin, vice-director of the Institute of Real Estate at Tsinghua University, who teaches property management two hours a week.

Ji rarely teaches outside the university, but he said: "We need to so something for these children."

The school accepts 100 students every year who have to take entrance exams in Chinese language and mathematics.

The students are aged from 16 to 20, with parents who work in Beijing earning an average monthly income of less than 300 yuan (US$37) per family member. Junior middle school qualification is also required.

The first group of the 84 students, who are from 21 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, are selected out of 150 applicants.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2005)