Gaokao delay provokes fury

Dozens of furious non-local parents shouted slogans and held signs outside the complaint office of Beijing Education Bureau Thursday, accusing the bureau of stalling over when non-Beijing registered children will be able to sit the gaokao (national college entrance examination) in the city.

The bureau told the Global Times that the issue is still under discussion, while the parents say a resolution is urgent, as gaokao registration will take place from December 1 to 5.

In March, Minister of Education Yuan Guiren said that the ministry would launch a policy concerning the non-local gaokao takers and would request the local bureaus to decide how to implement the changes.　

So far Beijing education bureau has failed to issue any commitment as to when these non-local students will be able to sit the test in Beijing.

Du Guowang, one of the some-50 parents who have protested at the bureau every Thursday since September 20, said time was running out for his Beijing-educated 17-year-old son.　

"I would have no choice but to send him back to Inner Mongolia [Autonomous Region] to sit his exam," he said. Du said that he is disappointed in the Chinese education system, and if his son cannot sit the exam in Beijing, he would have to sell his house to fund his son's university education overseas.

A mother surnamed Jin from Heilongjiang Province said she will probably sue the education bureau for their delay in implementing the new policy.　

She was also discontent because a foreigner can take the gaokao in Beijing, but not a Chinese citizen registered outside the capital.　

"This is not fair to us," she said.

According to the Beijing gaokao application notice for 2013, issued Wednesday, applicants must either be a high school student with a Beijing hukou (household registration) or a foreigner with a permanent resident permit.　

A media officer, surnamed Wang, from the Beijing Education Bureau said that despite the complaints of the non-local parents, it will take time to decide when students without a Beijing hukou could sit the gaokao here.

"It involves cooperation with other government bureaus like the public security bureau to push this policy forward," he said.

For foreigners, the policy has been in place for years, he said.

In November, Heilongjiang Province became the first region in China to enforce the regulation that migrants to the province can sit the gaokao, the Xinhua News Agency reported. Jiangsu and Anhui provinces have said they will follow suit from 2013.