Care needed to stop pupils dropping out

A TOWNSHIP government in Bama, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, has charged four pairs of parents with violating the Compulsory Education Law as they forced their children to drop out of school. Beijing News comments:

None of the four families is too poor to afford their children's junior middle school education, which is almost free in Bama thanks to government subsidies. But all of the defendants urged their children to go to work as migrant workers in cities as soon as possible, believing that education is useless.

Although the four pairs of parents are suspected of violating the law, which stipulates nine years of compulsory education, they should not take all the blame.