Migrant workers in Beijing are being encouraged to take free books for their children when they head home for the Spring Festival that falls on February 18.

Last month an open letter was issued to encourage Beijingers to donate books. This is part of the campaign five government departments launched in January to offer migrant workers free books. It is an effort to help rural children left behind by their parents.

The government departments, including the Publication Bureau of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and Beijing Press and Publication Bureau have donated some 110,000 books. The books are a sound investment in rural children.

A report from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences revealed that the number of migrant workers reached 140 million in 2005. As a result, more than 20 million children remained in their hometowns when their parents left for cities to make a living. Studies found that many of these children feel lonely, do not perform well in school and play truant.

Living a hard life in cities, migrant workers cannot afford books as presents for their children back home. Both in the city and the countryside, reading is increasingly unpopular among children. City children are tempted by TV programs, video games and the Internet while their peers in rural areas lack books. These children have yet to benefit from the proliferation of excellent books.

Hopefully, the ongoing campaign in Beijing will change things for the children who are struggling most.

Encouraging migrant workers to take books home helps send the message to their children that books are a key to their future.

This matters not only because children who are keen on reading can look forward to the lifelong pleasure of reading, but because loving books is an excellent predictor of future educational success.

The government has vowed to help the rural children left behind and the Beijing books are just one small part of the national concern.

One project, which seems to have only a slim chance of success, involves creating clubs for rural children to play with surrogate parents. Perhaps if the joy of reading can be part of the plan, it may offer some hope for improving the future of our migrant workers' children. They are part of China's future.
 
(China Daily February 8, 2007)