Shanghai has closed a school for migrant children operating in unsafe conditions and without a proper license, and transferred its nearly 2,000 students to a nearby local school, officials said on Tuesday.

Jianying School had been operating without a proper license and failed to meet national standards for schools, and 30 percent of the teachers did not have teaching certificates, said Li Xuehong, head of the Education Bureau of Putuo District.

Twenty-four classrooms -- built out of steel sheets with no lightning conductors -- were deemed unsafe by fire control departments, said the official.

The school was set up on some land leased from a factory but the lease expired last February.

Local education authorities decided to close the school last Friday before parents pay the tuition fees for next semester, according to official sources.

The students from Jianying School were transferred to a branch of Caoyang Primary School and were offered free school bus services and free lunches there.

The closure of the school, however, caused discontent from some parents. They were afraid that the admission by the Caoyang Primary School was only a stopgap measure of the authorities.

The parents also worried about the school fees and their kids' transportation even if the public school would continue to open the door to them next semester.

Li, the education bureau head, however, said that the government is "responsible providing migrant children safe and equal education resources."

The bureau is making a plan to solve the problem, the official said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2007)