Education resources need to be reallocated: survey

A majority some 71 percent of survey respondents believe that an appropriate reallocation of the nation's education resources would prevent their peers from moving around the country to take advantage of discrepancies in the marking schemes of gaokao, or the national college entrance exam, which are determined by location.

The China Youth Daily survey that included 2,280 online participants said that of the 71.4 percent of respondents, 51.9 percent felt that China's western regions need more invested into the national education system, while 39.5 percent suggested efforts were needed to crack down on students who migrate to places that are unfairly beneficial to their exam results.

Ninety-one percent of respondents said that they were aware of migrant students around them and 92.7 percent said that the students were there because of their scheming parents, but 78.4 percent felt that the trend could not be stopped so long as the differing admission scores and number of admissions remain in place across the country.

Gao Yuan, a student from Langfang, Hebei Province, some 100 kilometers south of Beijing, took the exam in Tianjin this year, where admission scores are set much lower than in Hebei Province.

Students also move within provinces to optimize their chances. Exam-takers in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region eye the region's Xihaigu, which has a policy of bumping students up an extra 10 points to 30 points.

The survey also showed that 64.4 percent of respondents feel that the migrations are caused by the nation's imbalanced education system as a whole, while 39.7 percent are understanding of parents moving their students to counteract the imbalances.

By comparison, 35 percent of those surveyed see the moves as cheating the system, while 31.8 percent said the movements harm the interests of local students, for whom the policies are meant to aid.

Beijing resident Li Xi said that she understands that parents move their children to give them a better chance at a higher test score - and ultimately a brighter future. But she said that she still strongly opposes all of the migrant students who show up at her child's school, saying that they unfairly take away from the limited number of enrollment opportunities set aside for her child and other students with a Beijing hukou(household registration).