Police in Shanghai conducted a daylight raid to close down a school for children of poor migrants, sparking a violent clash with parents and teachers, Chinese state media reported yesterday.
The fracas occurred on Monday after more than 300 officers and government officials descended on Friday on the Jianying Hope School in the city's Putuo District, interrupting classes and ordering students onto buses, the Xinhua news agency said.
The Xin'an Evening News, a newspaper published in Anhui Province, said parents returned to the school on Monday and demanded that students be allowed to finish the term at the current facility.
Police then moved in to disperse the crowd, beating and pushing some, although the paper mentioned no arrests or serious injuries.
Officers also attacked reporters and teachers filming the scene and attempted to seize their digital cameras, the newspaper reported.
Putuo District police refused to comment.
NO LICENSE, NO LEASE
Putuo District Education Bureau officials who refused to give their names said that the school was closed because it lacked a proper license and its lease had expired.
"We closed this school because it is not operated in a proper way. We are still dealing with relevant government departments on the issue," said a woman reached by telephone at the bureau's information office.
Under China's strict residency rules, children of the country's tens of millions of migrant workers are generally barred from attending local schools unless they pay steep fees that are far beyond the means of most migrants.
Schools set up by private groups especially for migrants are frequently harassed and closed by local governments, provoking accusations of discrimination and bullying.
Strong demand for land for urban redevelopment in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities has exacerbated such conflicts.
Media reports said Jianying was set up in 1996 by Yao Weijian, a county-level government adviser from Anhui Province.
They said the school had about 80 teachers and more than 2,100 students, about 80 percent of them from Anhui -- home to many migrants who are working in Shanghai.
TRANSFERRED
The reports said the Jianying students were transferred to a branch of the Caoyang Primary School located nearby in western Shanghai.
A woman who answered the phone at Caoyang's administrative office refused to comment.
"We are obligated to follow the arrangements made by the Education Bureau," said the woman, who refused to give her name.
Most Shanghai media did not report on the incident, although the News Times, a local newspaper, said yesterday that safety issues had also been a concern behind the closure.
It said the Jianying students were receiving an education on a par with other Shanghai students at Caoyang Primary.
"We guarantee that all students will be able to attend school," the paper quoted an unidentified Putuo Education Bureau official as saying.
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