Stay-at-home children Twelve-year-old Luo Xiaofeng refused to have dinner with his parents on the 15th day of the first lunar month, the last day of the Chinese lunar new year. Instead, he sat on the doorstep sobbing. "They are leaving for Xiamen tomorrow, and I don't want to let them go," he cried. It was the first Spring Festival in three years in which his parents had managed to come back to their hometown in the eastern part of Ningde, Fujian Province, to spend the holiday with him. Luo is not alone. Government statistics show that more than 20 million children in rural areas whose parents have left home to search for work in the city. The problem has reached a national scale as more and more migrant workers from across China answer the call of employers in the country's booming cities. The splitting up of families poses a challenge to traditional household structures and approaches to child-rearing, said Xie Guangxiang, deputy secretary-general of Anhui Provincial Government. In a proposal to the ongoing National Committee of the CPPCC, Xie urged the whole country to think seriously about the situation. Among the potential problems stay-at-home children face are the absence of any sort of family education, degraded school records and other psychological problems. A survey of people in Jingmen, Hubei Province, showed that stay-at-home local children suffer from poor living conditions, lagging educational attainment, insecurity and difficultly in communication. The survey, conducted by the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF) in May last year, involved 181 children, 95 boys and 86 girls. The results were published last week on the federation's website. Some 87.9 percent of the children surveyed said they were willing to stay with their parents. About 90 percent said they felt insecure when they were left alone. The five most pressing concerns for such children are tutoring, psychological help, security, financial support and communications. To deal with the issue, a dozen government-related bodies, including the Office of the Rural Workers United Conference under the State Council and ACWF, set up a working panel in October last year. The panel is to cooperate with other government bodies, including the Education, Public Security and Finance ministries, to gradually put in place laws and regulations to safeguard the rights of stay-at-home children. 點擊查看更多雙語新聞 (China Daily)

正月15那天，12歲的羅曉峰不愿意和父母一起吃飯。 他坐在門前的臺階上一邊哭泣，一邊說：“他們明天就要去廈門了，我不想讓他們走。” 這是曉峰的父母三年來第一次回福建寧德的老家陪他過春節。 但羅曉峰不是一個例外。據政府統計數據顯示，我國農村地區目前有2000多萬留守兒童，這些孩子的父母都在外地打工。 近年來，由于離開家鄉去往發展迅速的城市打工的農民工越來越多，這已成為一個全國性的問題。 安徽省政府副秘書長謝廣祥說，留守家庭問題向傳統的家庭結構和子女教育的方法提出了挑戰。 謝廣祥在向全國政協全體會議提交的議案中呼吁，全社會應認真考慮這一問題。 家庭教育的缺失、學習成績的退步和其他心理問題都是留守兒童所面臨的一些潛在問題。 湖北省荊門市開展的一項調查顯示，當地留守兒童生活條件艱苦、缺乏應有的教育、沒有安全感，而且溝通上也存在困難。 這項由全國婦聯去年5月開展的調查共對181名兒童進行了訪問，其中包括95個男孩、86個女孩。這項調查的結果于上周在婦聯的網站上公布。 約87.9%的受訪兒童說，他們想和父母生活在一起。約90%的孩子說，父母不在身邊，他們沒有安全感。 目前，留守兒童所面臨的五大突出問題包括家庭教育問題、心理問題、安全問題、財政支持以及溝通問題。 為了解決留守兒童的問題，國務院下屬的農民工工作聯席會議辦公室以及全國婦聯等12個政府部門已于去年10月成立了農村留守兒童專題工作組。 這個工作組將與教育部、公安部和財政部等政府部門合作，逐步建立和完善保護留守兒童合法權益的法律法規體系和政策措施。 （ 英語點津姍姍編輯）