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Exam policy hurts migrant students who must take test back home
By Wang Ruoyao and Ni Yuanjin |
June 10, 2011, Friday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
DESPITE boasting an exceptional academic performance in one of Beijing's best high schools, Xiao Zhi has to quit the national college entrance examination, known in Chinese as gaokao, held across the country from Tuesday through yesterday.
Xiao Zhi can't take the exam because his household registration, or hukou, is not tied to the national capital, where he and his parents have lived for 10 years.
China's Ministry of Education forbids high school graduates from taking the gaokao in places where they do not have a hukou, regardless of how long they or their family have lived there.
Xiao Zhi has decided to attend a university in the United States, allowing him to bypass the gaokao. Otherwise, he would have to take the exam in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where he was born.
In Heilongjiang, test papers and textbooks are different from those used in Beijing, and competition for seats in first-class universities is much fiercer.
Last year, China's two most prestigious universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, admitted nearly 600 out of that year's 80,000 Beijing-based NCEE examinees. The same universities admitted just 200 of Heilongjiang's 195,000 examinees.
Although many Chinese have moved to the nation's biggest cities to seek out better lives for themselves and their children, some of them have inadvertently created new problems and obstacles related to household registration regulations.
Some parents are urging educational authorities to lift the household registration restrictions for gaokao examinees, as the test is regarded as a life-changing event for many young Chinese.
Wearing a T-shirt printed with the slogan "Education Fairness," Xiao Zhi's mother, surnamed Li, is part of a campaign in Beijing to collect public signatures to support an appeal for the relaxation of hukou restrictions, just two days prior to this year's gaokao.
Household registration
Li has campaigned for five years. Many of these parents have worked and paid taxes in Beijing for years, and even have residence permits to live in the city. However, without an official household registration tied to Beijing, their children are not allowed to take the gaokao.
China's migrant population was 211 million in 2009, and is expected to continue to grow in the next two or three decades. The migrant population has increasingly started to settle down in China's larger cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.
The government should take a more positive attitude toward relaxing the gaokao restrictions, which contradict China's educational laws, according to Zhang Qianfan, a law professor from Peking University. According to China's Education Law, all students may enjoy equal rights in pursuing higher education.
"A first-rate university would probably admit my son if he could take the Beijing gaokao," Li says. Her son, a student at the prestigious Middle School Affiliated with Renmin University, scored well on the two mock exams he took in preparation for the gaokao.
Spending four years in a US university will cost at least 1 million yuan (US$ 154,000),which is much higher than in a Chinese university, Li says. She and her husband have tried to save as much money as possible over the past years in preparation for their son's tuition fees. "We take the bus to work at six in the morning every day. We even planned to sell our apartment in Beijing at one point to fund his education," Li says.
Minister of Education Yuan Guiren said during the annual parliamentary session in March that the ministry was considering allowing migrant students to take the gaokao in places other than their hometowns. However, authorities with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission expressed their concerns over the move in a written response to the parents' proposal.
"Relaxing the hukou restriction for gaokao examinees could lead to a massive influx of migrants, exerting great pressure on the city's resources and environment," reads the written message.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
Xiao Zhi can't take the exam because his household registration, or hukou, is not tied to the national capital, where he and his parents have lived for 10 years.
China's Ministry of Education forbids high school graduates from taking the gaokao in places where they do not have a hukou, regardless of how long they or their family have lived there.
Xiao Zhi has decided to attend a university in the United States, allowing him to bypass the gaokao. Otherwise, he would have to take the exam in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, where he was born.
In Heilongjiang, test papers and textbooks are different from those used in Beijing, and competition for seats in first-class universities is much fiercer.
Last year, China's two most prestigious universities, Peking University and Tsinghua University, admitted nearly 600 out of that year's 80,000 Beijing-based NCEE examinees. The same universities admitted just 200 of Heilongjiang's 195,000 examinees.
Although many Chinese have moved to the nation's biggest cities to seek out better lives for themselves and their children, some of them have inadvertently created new problems and obstacles related to household registration regulations.
Some parents are urging educational authorities to lift the household registration restrictions for gaokao examinees, as the test is regarded as a life-changing event for many young Chinese.
Wearing a T-shirt printed with the slogan "Education Fairness," Xiao Zhi's mother, surnamed Li, is part of a campaign in Beijing to collect public signatures to support an appeal for the relaxation of hukou restrictions, just two days prior to this year's gaokao.
Household registration
Li has campaigned for five years. Many of these parents have worked and paid taxes in Beijing for years, and even have residence permits to live in the city. However, without an official household registration tied to Beijing, their children are not allowed to take the gaokao.
China's migrant population was 211 million in 2009, and is expected to continue to grow in the next two or three decades. The migrant population has increasingly started to settle down in China's larger cities, including Beijing and Shanghai.
The government should take a more positive attitude toward relaxing the gaokao restrictions, which contradict China's educational laws, according to Zhang Qianfan, a law professor from Peking University. According to China's Education Law, all students may enjoy equal rights in pursuing higher education.
"A first-rate university would probably admit my son if he could take the Beijing gaokao," Li says. Her son, a student at the prestigious Middle School Affiliated with Renmin University, scored well on the two mock exams he took in preparation for the gaokao.
Spending four years in a US university will cost at least 1 million yuan (US$ 154,000),which is much higher than in a Chinese university, Li says. She and her husband have tried to save as much money as possible over the past years in preparation for their son's tuition fees. "We take the bus to work at six in the morning every day. We even planned to sell our apartment in Beijing at one point to fund his education," Li says.
Minister of Education Yuan Guiren said during the annual parliamentary session in March that the ministry was considering allowing migrant students to take the gaokao in places other than their hometowns. However, authorities with the Beijing Municipal Education Commission expressed their concerns over the move in a written response to the parents' proposal.
"Relaxing the hukou restriction for gaokao examinees could lead to a massive influx of migrants, exerting great pressure on the city's resources and environment," reads the written message.
(The authors are Xinhua writers.)
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