While a large number of parents applied to get their children into Shanghai's first private school for juvenile delinquents, the school was unable to enroll most of the kids and is now facing financial problems due to a lack of enrollment.

 

The Shanghai Guanxing Training Center, which planned to enroll trouble-making children for full-time treatment, was told by local education authorities that it has no right to take youngsters away from ordinary schools.

 

The school, which is licensed as a part-time training institute, is allowed to enroll youngsters who have officially dropped out of regular school and haven't taken a job. Otherwise, classes can only be held on weekends to allow students to attend regular school during the week.

 

The ruling is based on China's compulsory education law, which says children must attend nine years of school.

 

Because of the rules, the school has only enrolled eight students, far from its goal of having at least 20 students in the first class.

 

"I feel extremely sad about that, but I cannot think of any solutions," said Zong Fulin, the retired principal who started Guangxing in January.

 

Zong said he received hundreds of calls from interested parents and nearly 40 students had signed up for the school before he was informed about the restrictions by the Pudong New Area government in Shanghai.

 

(Shanghai Daily March 22, 2007)