Beijing gives limited access to education for nonlocals

The Beijing government Sunday announced new regulations that will allow students whose parents are from outside Beijing to take exams that could admit them to local vocational or trade-training institutes.

Starting January next year, junior high school students without a Beijing hukou, or household registration, will be allowed to take exams to enter schools that provide vocational training, if their parents can prove they are employed, and have made contributions to their social security account in Beijing for at least three years.

Nonlocal senior high school students will be able to take entrance exams to attend colleges that provide vocational training in 2014, if their parents made social security contributions in Beijing for at least six years. Students are also required to finish three years of senior high school education in Beijing before applying to take the exams.

More academically inclined nonlocal students who attend primary, junior and senior high school in Beijing still have to return to their parents' home to take the gaokao, the college entrance examination, if they want to attend university.

There are currently more than 419,000 nonlocal primary school and middle school students in Beijing, according to Xinhua.