Summer care for children of migrant workers not only needs to "hand in hand"
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Recently, the first phase of the 12-day Beijing summer custody service has ended. This exploratory service aimed at solving the problem of "difficult nursing care" for students during the summer vacation has also attracted the attention of migrant workers' families.
During the interview, the reporter learned that the summer care provided by the school makes parents of migrant workers more at ease and trustworthy, but the management of "mixed classes" also worries parents.
Carrying out more diversified summer care activities has become the new expectation of migrant workers' families.
On August 3, the 12-day Beijing first summer custody service officially ended.
During this period, some parents of migrant workers, due to the lack of work and lack of help from relatives and friends in the city, chose to send their children to summer care classes at school to ease the pressure on financial and time investment.
As an exploration to solve the problem of "difficulty in nursing care" for students during summer vacation, how does the summer care service attract the participation of parents of migrant workers?
What is the experience of the first phase of the service for parents and children of migrant workers?
What else do they expect from the service content?
A reporter from the Workers’ Daily conducted an interview.
This is our own school, we can rest assured
At 8:30 am on August 3, after sending her daughter Qiqi to the school's summer care class, Yanping rode her electric bike back to her supermarket and started a new day of work.
At the same time, she still remembered in her heart whether she enrolled in interest classes for her daughter in Beijing or sent back to her hometown for summer vacation after the end of the trusteeship on the last day of the day.
Twelve years ago, Yanping came to Beijing from a rural village in Huaihua, Hunan, to work in a university print shop run by her uncle.
After accumulating experience, Yanping and her husband rented a storefront in Dongcheng District, Beijing, and opened a small supermarket. They also bought 3 computers and 2 printers. They opened the printing shop in the supermarket and the husband and wife looked after them together.
In 2013, daughter Qiqi was born. In order to allow the child to receive a better education, the couple decided to take their daughter with them to take care of.
Two years ago, Qiqi entered a certain elementary school in Dongcheng District. Yanping and her husband took turns picking up and dropping off. The sensible Qiqi did homework and played in the store after school.
On July 15th, at the class meeting after the end of the second-year final exam, the head teacher informed the school to start the summer custody service on July 19th for 12 days, excluding Saturdays and Sundays.
After seeing the detailed notice in the WeChat group, Yanping immediately contacted the class teacher to submit an application.
"We have been paying attention to this year's summer custody policy, just waiting for the school's specific plan, so we immediately registered when we saw the teacher's news." Yanping said.
"Qiqi prefers to stay with her classmates. She first agreed to participate in summer care this time." In Yanping and her husband's view, it is more trustworthy to give her daughter to her school. She said that she was still in a familiar environment and faced familiar teachers, and the hosting service was also run by the school, which made her feel more at ease than going to other tutoring classes."
For Liu Bing, an air-conditioner maintenance worker, the summer care classes offered by the school are not only reassuring, but are also much cheaper than the kindergarten services on the market.
Liu Bing's eldest son Liu Yan attends elementary school in Haidian District, Beijing. His wife takes care of his second child at home. The summer vacation is the busy period for air-conditioning maintenance. Liu Bing is a little bit unaware of the child's care.
"My wife and I originally discussed hiring a domestic worker, but it was really too expensive. Now we send our children to the school's summer care class and only need to pay more than ten yuan a day for lunch, which reduces the financial pressure a lot."
"Mixed shifts" management faces deficiencies
According to the "Notice on Supporting the Exploration and Development of Summer Custody Services" issued by the General Office of the Ministry of Education, summer custody services are mainly for families and students who have real needs, and collective remedial classes and new lessons are not allowed.
In this regard, Liu Bing believes that the school’s summer trusteeship does help migrant workers’ families solve basic nursing problems. “We don’t have any relatives or friends in the city to help, and we don’t work on time. School trusteeship is the greatest help for us. ."
After the summer care began, Liu Bing picked up the child home at 3:30 pm every day, and habitually asked the child what he did that day on the way.
"My child told me that after going to school every day, I started reading books, doing homework, and then eating at some point. In the middle, they would be arranged to do sports activities and occasionally organize watching movies." These contents are somewhat different from his expectations, and I feel that they are just The child's summer nursing "hands up".
Liu Bing told reporters that he can understand the regulations on no make-up and no new classes, but his son's English score is not very good. He hopes his son will have a chance to catch up during the summer vacation.
"Beijing elementary school students have been learning English since the first grade, but his mother and I know very limited vocabulary, let alone read it, and it is very difficult to tutor. I think it is best for him to practice with his classmates in school. Teachers can also help dictate words."
The reason why Yanping considered enrolling in an interest class for Qiqi after the end of the hosting was because she understood the reality of the “mixed classes” of the school's summer hosting.
According to her, she learned when she went to pick up the children on the first day of the custody. There were only more than 20 students participating in the summer custody of the school. Therefore, the school centralized the management of these students of different grades and classes.
"The school stated in the notice that it does not organize subject training and group lectures. We know this. The teachers in the school need to rest. It is really troublesome and unnecessary to take care of the students in each class." But Yanping She believes that the mental development of pupils in different grades is different. Lower grade students who have just entered elementary school will be more timid when facing higher grade students. She is worried that "mixed classes" will bring psychological discomfort to children.
Looking forward to exploring a richer form of activity
Sending the children home for the summer vacation is Liu Bing's plan after the school summer care service ends.
He said: "The child's English can't keep up, and we are also trying to find a way, but those tutoring organizations cost hundreds of dollars a class, and the financial pressure is a little bit heavy. After sending him back to his hometown, the cousin who is on the summer vacation at university can still help. Give me some guidance." The elders in the family also hope that their children can go back to their hometown for a period of time during the summer vacation.
During the interview, the reporter learned that without summer care or participation in summer care, sending their children back to their hometown for summer vacation has become the choice of most migrant workers' families.
So are there any other options?
On July 23, the reporter saw at the Dandelion Middle School located in the urban-rural junction of Daxing District, Beijing. More than a dozen themed booths showed the students' exploration achievements in the fields of environmental protection, gastronomy, chemistry, physics, and nearly 200 teachers and students. I went back to more than ten days of colorful summer camp activities with volunteers.
Xu Jing is not only a volunteer in this summer camp, but also an alumnus who graduated from Dandelion School for two years.
She told reporters that she chose to come back to participate in the summer camp, in fact, to make up for her regrets that year.
"My hometown is in rural Heilongjiang. My parents came to work in a clothing factory in Beijing very early. In the past, my parents didn't have time to supervise me every summer vacation.
According to the relevant person in charge of the school, since the school opened in 2005, summer camps have been held every summer.
"Many students in the school are migrant children, and they may rarely have the opportunity to see Beijing around them. The summer camp is actually a platform for them to expand their knowledge."
Teacher Zhao, a volunteer with many home visits to students, believes that the income of migrant workers’ families is relatively low and there is not so much money to apply for various training and interest classes for their children, but they will encourage their children to participate in summer camps and do their best. Help children receive a better education.
"From this perspective, our summer camp activities not only completed the task of hosting, but also enriched the form of hosting."
Liu Xiaoyan