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(diǎn)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(tái)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(jié)。 但羅曉峰不是一個(gè)例外。據(jù)政府統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)顯示，我國(guó)農(nóng)村地區(qū)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(xiāng)去往發(fā)展迅速的城市打工的農(nóng)民工越來越多，這已成為一個(gè)全國(guó)性的問題。 安徽省政府副秘書長(zhǎng)謝廣祥說，留守家庭問題向傳統(tǒng)的家庭結(jié)構(gòu)和子女教育的方法提出了挑戰(zhàn)。 謝廣祥在向全國(guó)政協(xié)全體會(huì)議提交的議案中呼吁，全社會(huì)應(yīng)認(rèn)真考慮這一問題。 家庭教育的缺失、學(xué)習(xí)成績(jī)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(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，當(dāng)?shù)亓羰貎和顥l件艱苦、缺乏應(yīng)有的教育、沒有安全感，而且溝通上也存在困難。 這項(xiàng)由全國(guó)婦聯(lián)去年5月開展的調(diào)查共對(duì)181名兒童進(jìn)行了訪問，其中包括95個(gè)男孩、86個(gè)女孩。這項(xiàng)調(diào)查的結(jié)果于上周在婦聯(lián)的網(wǎng)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(cái)政支持以及溝通問題。 為了解決留守兒童的問題，國(guó)務(wù)院下屬的農(nóng)民工工作聯(lián)席會(huì)議辦公室以及全國(guó)婦聯(lián)等12個(gè)政府部門已于去年10月成立了農(nóng)村留守兒童專題工作組。 這個(gè)工作組將與教育部、公安部和財(cái)政部等政府部門合作，逐步建立和完善保護(hù)留守兒童合法權(quán)益的法律法規(guī)體系和政策措施。 （ 英語點(diǎn)津姍姍編輯）