Political advisor: Chinese children in cities need manual labor

Source: Xinhua | 03-03-2009 08:06

BEIJING, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Chinese education authorities should formulate a regulation on manual labor for schoolchildren as many kids in cities even do not clean their own classrooms, a political advisor has proposed.

Feng Shiliang, member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said Monday he was concerned that manual labor such as sweeping has been outsourced by some urban primary and middle schools to property management companies.

"The students' ability for labor has been strangled," Feng said.

Many children in cities are doing little manual labor, as at home their parents do all the housework and at school labor is taken over by employees of property management companies, Feng added.

He refuted the pretext by some schools that manual labor might be "dangerous" for children. "It might be dangerous to clean windows of tall buildings, but how about the classrooms and playgrounds?"