Tragic accidents just part of a hard life for China's 60 million 'left-behind children'

When Du Juan, who is now 18, was abandoned by her solo father at the age of nine, she could scarcely imagine she would one day attend high school. After 18 months studying at Shangdong Tancheng Datang School, Du was selected as one of 10 national “role model abandoned children” by the Care for Abandoned Children Fund in Beijing last year.

Her headmaster, Wang Yiyong, said the honour had changed Du - making her “much happier” and more motivated as a student.

Du is not alone. Nationwide, there are about 60 million children 'left behind' by their parents, the All-China Women’s Federation’s estimates in a recent survey. As their parents leave their hometowns to seek employment in cities, these children are often left in a state of insufficient care, if not dire poverty. The National Bureau of Statistics reported in 2010 that the number of migrant workers in China had exceeded 240 million.

“It’s a pity that these children lack the company of their parents at such a young age,” said Wang Yiyong. “It’s even a luxury to hear parents’ nagging their children,” he added.

An educator all his life, Wang, 50, has noticed that many students in his region - Tancheng county in Shandong province - were abandoned children. So in 2003, he started a special boarding school for abandoned kids. He said this allows students to study, eat, sleep and play like in a “large family”.

This year, his school developed into a full scale of kindergarten, primary school and secondary school with about 200 staff and teachers. It now has 1,460 students - over 70 per cent of them are abandoned children. Five years ago, the annual tuition of the boarding school was 4,000 yuan (HK$5,058). Now, it has risen to 8,000 yuan.