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. 点击查看更多双语新闻 (China Daily)

正月15那天，12岁的罗晓峰不愿意和父母一起吃饭。 他坐在门前的台阶上一边哭泣，一边说：“他们明天就要去厦门了，我不想让他们走。” 这是晓峰的父母三年来第一次回福建宁德的老家陪他过春节。 但罗晓峰不是一个例外。据政府统计数据显示，我国农村地区目前有2000多万留守儿童，这些孩子的父母都在外地打工。 近年来，由于离开家乡去往发展迅速的城市打工的农民工越来越多，这已成为一个全国性的问题。 安徽省政府副秘书长谢广祥说，留守家庭问题向传统的家庭结构和子女教育的方法提出了挑战。 谢广祥在向全国政协全体会议提交的议案中呼吁，全社会应认真考虑这一问题。 家庭教育的缺失、学习成绩的退步和其他心理问题都是留守儿童所面临的一些潜在问题。 湖北省荆门市开展的一项调查显示，当地留守儿童生活条件艰苦、缺乏应有的教育、没有安全感，而且沟通上也存在困难。 这项由全国妇联去年5月开展的调查共对181名儿童进行了访问，其中包括95个男孩、86个女孩。这项调查的结果于上周在妇联的网站上公布。 约87.9%的受访儿童说，他们想和父母生活在一起。约90%的孩子说，父母不在身边，他们没有安全感。 目前，留守儿童所面临的五大突出问题包括家庭教育问题、心理问题、安全问题、财政支持以及沟通问题。 为了解决留守儿童的问题，国务院下属的农民工工作联席会议办公室以及全国妇联等12个政府部门已于去年10月成立了农村留守儿童专题工作组。 这个工作组将与教育部、公安部和财政部等政府部门合作，逐步建立和完善保护留守儿童合法权益的法律法规体系和政策措施。 （ 英语点津姗姗编辑）