China’s rapid economic expansion has brought tremendous growth and prosperity to the country, but its education system continues to be under-funded and unequal, especially for the estimated 100 to 150 million migrant workers and their children coming from some of the poorest rural areas without legal permanent residency status in the urban metro-politan areas where they end up. Without proper residency, migrant children are either barred from local schools or kept out by the high fees imposed on them. Current official estimates point to a total of 1.8 million migrant children in China between the ages of 6 and 14 years of age that are receiving no education at all.

To address the emerging educational needs of migrant school children, private schools have been established as an alternative. However, many of these migrant schools are in older school buildings that are not earthquake safe or have other structural deficiencies, lack the needed education equipment, have under-qualified teachers, have overcrowded classrooms, and are often too expensive for poor families.

According to the Ford Foundation, in 2000 there were between 200 and 300 unlicensed schools operating in Beijing struggling to provide services to an estimated 100,000 migrant children. Yet, given the limitations of these institutions only 40% of these children are currently enrolled in school. In Shanghai, there were 519 private schools for migrant students in 2001 with 120,000 enrolled students yet there remains wide ranging inconsis-tencies in the physical conditions of these school, their educational standards and their cost for tuition.

Recognizing the plight of migrant school children and the institutions serving them, in 2002 the Shanghai Municipal Government became one of the first municipalities in China to undertake steps to improve the conditions of migrant schools. Thanks to a $60,000 grant from ICF to the Shanghai Teachers’ Award Foundation, this non-profit is now working in partnership with the municipal government to improve the standards of migrant schools in Shanghai’s Nanhui District, an industrial zone in close proximity to the port that is home to a growing number of migrant workers and their families.

Through the work of the Shanghai Teachers’ Award Foundation, student scholarships, teachers’ awards and educational equipment and supplies are now being provided to 31 schools in Shanghai's Nanhui District making positive impacts to the lives of over 15,500 migrant school children.