SOME parents whose children were born in Hong Kong are facing a dilemma about their kids’ education.

    Zeng Jing’s daughter was born in Hong Kong and will start primary school next year. Because the girl wasn’t born in Shenzhen, she will either need to enroll in an expensive private school or spend hours commuting to and from school in Hong Kong each day.

    Statistics show around 200,000 babies were born in Hong Kong to mainland parents between 2001 and April 2012, before hospitals in Hong Kong stopped allowing the practice. The families are now facing difficulty getting their children enrolled in mainland public schools.

    A mother surnamed Liu who lives in Buji, Longgang District, has to send her daughter to a kindergarten in Hong Kong. The girl prepares for school starting at 9 a.m., takes a bus at 10 a.m. and changes the Metro two times before arriving at Futian Checkpoint. The trip takes about 90 minutes. After half an hour at the checkpoint, Liu’s daughter reaches the kindergarten.

    “It takes about five hours a day between my home and the kindergarten in Yuen Long. I had to quit my job to transport my daughter every day,” Liu said.

    “If I knew how much trouble it was going to be, I wouldn’t have had my child born in Hong Kong,” Liu said.

    Another mother, Xiao, considered having her son study at primary school in Shenzhen, but it was very expensive for him to study at a private bilingual school in Nanshan. Xiao later decided that her son would continue to study in Hong Kong. He has to wake up at 5 a.m. to begin his 8 a.m. classes.

    Xiao spent HK$40,000 (US$5,156) to have her second child born in a Hong Kong hospital in 2009.

    Huang, a resident of Songgang, Bao’an District, chose a private school in Shenzhen for her two daughters born in Hong Kong. They have to spend about four hours commuting to and from school.

    Though there are 11 private schools in Shenzhen that enroll children with Hong Kong ID cards, school places are limited and costs high.

    At the annual sessions of the city’s legislature and advisory body, Chen Yiru, a member of the city’s political advisory body, proposed allowing children born in Hong Kong and Macao to study at local public schools.

    Around 30,000 children cross the border to study in Hong Kong every day and the number could rise to 85,000 by 2018.

    (Han Ximin)