Parents rage over delay in exam reform

A new round of argument has erupted as education authorities in Beijing and Guangdong Province continue to bar non-local hukou (household registration) holders from attending the 2013 college entrance examinations, despite the central government's order that all provinces and municipalities should lay out a plan by the end of this year to solve the problem.

According to a Xinhua report on Monday, the Ministry of Education vowed to gather all resources to "fight the tough battle" over the gaokao for non-local teenagers. The 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for educational equality.

Public outcry over this issue has grown in recent years, as most cities only allow students with local hukou to attend the gaokao, and children who move to new schools after migrating with their parents have to go back to their birthplace to take the exam.

In September, the Ministry of Education set a deadline of the end of this year for all local education authorities to develop examination policies "based on their own situation."

Some provinces, such as Heilongjiang and Anhui, have broadened their examination access for 2013. However, Guangdong and Beijing said last week they are working on a policy but details cannot be revealed now.

Migrant parents who have been eagerly waiting for a policy change are in despair now, as their children still have no chance to take the gaokao in Beijing or Shanghai next year.

The minimum scores needed to attend top universities are far lower in Beijing and Shanghai. This imposes a huge disadvantage on migrant students.

"Today is Thanksgiving Day, but we are very sad," one petitioner who went to the Beijing Letters and Calls Office on November 22 to advocate for her child to take the exam in Beijing, wrote on her blog.

Ding Jiaxi, chief partner at Beijing D&H Law Firm, who has been volunteering at the "Education for All" parents' league, told the Global Times that there were no words to describe his impotent rage.

"Social equality and justice will always be empty talk if the hukou system is not abolished," he said.

However, parents with local hukou in big cities insist the door should not be opened to migrant children.

"The competition to enter even a good primary school among Beijing kids is already very fierce, the city cannot endure more newcomers," argued Yuan Yi, a Beijing resident and father of a 3-year-old girl.

After years of reform, China's development has reached a stage where different interest groups are raising conflicting demands. Balancing these demands is a question yet to be solved by reform, Cao Baoyin, a commentator, told the China National Radio.

Xiong Bingqi, vice director of the 21st Century Education Research Academy, and Chu Zhaohui, a researcher with the China National Institute for Educational Research, told the Global Times that the only way to solve the dilemma is to abolish the current gaokao system and let colleges set their own set of criteria for enrollment.

"The seemingly fair national college entrance exam is not fair at all. A student from a bad school must make double the effort in order to have the same chances as a student in a good school," Chu said.