Beijing migrant worker-rockers seeking HK help

A folk rock band from Beijing has called on the Hong Kong media to support its efforts to save a school for migrant workers' children it set up in the capital.

Tongxin Shi Yan School, which the New Workers Art Troupe founded in 2005, last month received a letter from the local education bureau asking it to close down.

'We consulted lawyers, who told us the government had no legal basis for their threat. We sent the bureau a letter signed by four prominent academics asking them to protect our school. We're waiting for a reply,' said guitarist Sun Heng, 37, whose band was in Hong Kong last week to perform for free to help raise funds for a local women's charity.

Sun hopes the local media can spread news of what has happened to their school, and that it was not an isolated incident.

Shutdowns of schools for migrant children have been reported in international media since the lead-up to the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Education bureau officials usually cite lack of permits and poor safety standards of the school buildings as reasons for the closures.

'We have been getting all the required licences for the past seven years, and all of a sudden they say we're not fit to operate,' said Sun. 'If the government really had the children's best interests at heart, they would help schools make the improvements they say we need.'