It's the first day of school for Zhi Yang… The reluctant five-year-old is taken to his new classroom by his father.

This specialist facility in Beijing caters exclusively for the children of migrant workers.

Zhi Yang’s father is an electrician, who moves around the country as work opportunities dictate. He doesn’t have a resident’s permit for the capital, an invaluable piece of paper that would allow him to register his son in a state-run school.

Instead he has to pay 10 euros a month. A small fortune for a Chinese working man. “I think the school fees are rather expensive here… But my son has to go to school… As a parent I must do it, even if it is difficult for me,“ Liu Hongbo tells us.

There are more than a hundred and 20 million migrant workers in China. And their children have to make do with schools like this one. In Beijing alone there are between 2 and 300 such establishments, operating outside the state system. “It is impossible for us to get a government subsidy for our school, because it’s not officially recognised as such. It is also difficult for us to operate on school fees alone because most of the children come from very poor families,“ school principal Yu Hong explains.

The shortfall in fees is made up from private donations. It's money that allows these children to study, sometimes in a fun way.

The teachers here follow the national curriculum, even if it can be a little difficult at times to maintain discipline. “The majority of the children here never went to nursery school, and this is the first school they have ever been to. They are not used to it, and they find everything a bit strange. This is why many of them shout and cry. Their behaviour in class is also not very good,“ Gao Ling, a teacher here tells us.

The school is helping these children from impoverished backgrounds take the first step towards a normal life, and integrate better into modern Chinese society. As we talk with the students, it’s clear that they are leaping at this opportunity.

“I think the teachers here treat us very well. I can play with my friends and don’t feel all alone. There is also a library here, with all kinds of books that are full of things for you to learn,” 9-year-old Fan Ying tells us.

The government is now planning to give children of migrant workers access to state education, meaning this would be the end of ‘first’ days at the Xingzhi school.

But it also means the end of discrimination in education. An estimated 10-15% of current migrant workers never went to school.