A recent spate of migrant school closings just ahead of the new school year may mean that up to 30,000 students will have nowhere to study come the start of the new semester. Local officials closed 30 private schools over the course of the past two months, mostly in Chaoyang and Daxing districts, citing subpar hygiene and safety standards.

Though Beijing officials have promised to provide alternatives for the displaced children, official plans have yet to be released, leaving many families uncertain of the immediate future. “The parents are wondering ‘Should we stay here? Should we move to another migrant community? Should we move back to our hometowns?’” says Jonathan Hursh, executive director of the Beijing-based NGO Compassion for Migrant Children. The government has built five new schools further away from the city center, according to the China Post, but the schools are too far away for many to attend, and do not have enough combined space to handle the current overflow.

Without official hukou, the children don’t have access to the public school system, leaving the migrant schools—often very basic operations with little in the way of funding or school supplies—as the only viable alternatives. “They say migrant schools are subpar, but a subpar education is better than no education ,” says Hursh.

Whether these school closings are permanent remains to be seen. Speculation is rife as to the reasons why , whether the theory is local government land grabs or an attempt to make life even more difficult for migrants in the capital to discourage others from coming. Andrew Jacobs has further explored the potential reasons behind the closings in a recent New York Times article. Whatever the true motivation behind the closings, the situation calls for immediate action, says Hursh. “In the short term I hope they can immediately provide spaces in public schools for migrant children,” he says. “If those schools weren’t safe, then this is a chance to give these students something better.”

image sourced via CSM