Minhang District officials recently terminated a mortgage contract with a migrant school that has been ordered to close by the local education bureau.

Hongxing Primary School, a private school for migrant children in suburban Huacao Town, was ordered shut down on June 30 -- the end of this spring semester.

The students will be transferred to other primary schools nearby from next semester beginning in September, village officials said.

"We will inform the parents and let them make preparations beforehand," said a village official surnamed Chen.

The school, opened by migrant workers from Anhui Province, was built in a dilapidated house in a garbage treatment area.

More than 300 students have classes in several dim and crowded classrooms.

To make matters worse, the school's drinking water is from pipes beside the toilet and the school doesn't have the required sanitary facilities.

"Considering the hidden dangers of the shabby teaching facilities, the dirty surroundings may pose risks to a student's health and safety. We ordered it last July to shut down when the fall semester ended before the Spring Festival," said an unidentified official of the Minhang Education Bureau.

However, the illegal school was found enrolling students before the spring semester, which began last week.

The migrant parents had their reasons to send their children to the school.

"I have never thought too much of the campus environment, I only wanted to find an affordable school for my son," said Wan Zhihong, a migrant parent. He added he had no idea that the school had been ordered closed.

Parents paid 380 yuan (US$45.8) per semester for each child, a much lower tuition than at local public schools.

"It is for sake of these parents and children that I opened such a school," Yao Shangjun, the school headmaster, told local officials earlier. Yao escaped back to his hometown after the mortgage termination was issued.

Currently, only 124 of the 519 migrant schools in the city were licensed by the Shanghai Education Commission. But illegal schools, which are always scattered in suburban areas with unqualified teaching staff, hold the bulk of the 320,000 migrant children in the city.

(eastday.com February 14, 2004)