Beijing's largest school for migrant children to close

In response to questions on the expiring license, Chen said he went to the district education commission in March to apply for renewal of the license, which was supposed to expire in March. The district education commission only extended the validity of the license to August. Usually, such a renewal would make the license valid for another three years.

In contrast, Meng Yun, an official from the Education Work Committee of Shijiangshan district, a Party-run agency, told Caixin.com in a report last week "Huangzhuang School did not ask for renewal of the license after it expired, and the district education commission extended the contract to August to not disrupt normal teaching activities."

Chen Enxian said in July he negotiated with the district's education commission and Jindu Landscaping and Greening in the hopes of continuing to run the school at a campus of a nearby vocational high school.

However, Chen said they did not reach an agreement, because the 16 classrooms offered were not enough to accommodate all the students, and only students from second to six grades in primary school would be allowed to go to the new campus.

In an open letter calling for help dated Aug 19, Chen said the Hua'ao School, another migrant school that will accommodate primary school students from Huangzhuang, is not "comparable with Huangzhuang School both in facilities and management levels".

According to the notice from the Shijiangshan district education commission, the students who have signed up at Huangzhuang School for the new semester are allowed to register at designated kindergartens, primary and junior middle schools.

The commission said that by Monday, more than 90 percent of the students registered with Huangzhuang School have signed up at new schools.

But Chen Enxian said he is afraid that when the existing students graduate, the designated schools would not enroll new migrant students in the future.

The mother of a 3-year-old girl, also surnamed Chen, said she had registered her daughter at the pre-school section of the Huangzhuang School in July.

However, she did not pay tuition fees, therefore her daughter was not on the student roll recognized by the district education commission.

As a result, her daughter was not permitted to attend the public kindergarten designated to accommodate kids from Huangzhuang School.

She had to ask Chen Enxian, the headmaster, to provide a document proving her daughter has signed up at the school.