Research On The Transformation Of Shanghai's Migrant Primary Schools' Administrative System

Rural migrants' influx into the city since the 1980s has been characterized by family migration and long-term settlements with the relaxation of the hukou system. The Chinese compulsory education system was highly interconnected with the hukou system, and as a result, many school age dependents of rural migrants were kept outside of the urban public school system due to high temporary study fees. Schools for rural migrant children emerged as self-help entities, which later turned into profit-making business models.In order to solve this social problem, the central government made a series of public policies. In 2003, the policy of Two Responsibilities-loc al governments of in-inflowing areas are primarily responsible, and full-ti me public schools are primarily responsible for migrant children's educati on. However, the magnitude of rural migrants'dependents made it imposs ible for urban public schools to accommodate all. Migrant schools remain the primary channel for the education provision of this group in most Chi nese cities.The substandard management and facilities in most migrant schools, resulted from school founders' cost-cutting strategies, led to the prevalent safety and education quality issues. To ensure educational rights and equality, the Ministry of Education proclaimed "to include rural migrant children who meet with certain requirements into private education" in a press conference in 2006. Since 2008, Shanghai became the first city where privatization of migrant schools kicked off. The goal was to turn 151 migrant schools into its private education system, and that by 2010, all migrant schools become private.The implementation of this policy affects over 260 migrant schools enrolling over tens of thousands of rural migrant children. The Shanghai government has allocated 30 million yuan into its implementation. This institutional change is fundamentally revising the education system in a significant way. However, it has been an understudied research topic, not only in terms of assessing the outcomes of this policy and discovering hurdles in its implementation, but also in terms of addressing this issue with a larger theoretical framework.This paper focuses on the privatization (zhuanzhi) of migrant schools in Shanghai. I study the pre-privatization conditions of migrant schools, the privatization procedures, and the changes brought by privatization.