System to make school enrollment transparent

Personal information of students graduating from elementary and entering middle schools in Beijing this year will be collected through a new electronic system starting May 1 to guarantee fair enrollment.

Beijing Education Commission spokesman Li Yi said at a news conference on Friday that it will be the first time the city uses an electronic system to record and track information for middle school enrollment. The move is intended to prevent any irregular deals made in enrollment.

Li said the electronic system will record the personal information of primary school students in Beijing and will automatically remove those who are about to enter middle school this year.

Beijing middle schools will electronically record the number of students that they are enrolling this year. Middle schools in different areas must make their enrollment information public in the system.

"So there will be not a single vacancy to place additional students who are admitted through under-the- table deals. The whole process will be transparent," Li said.

He said that each student's enrollment history will be included in the electronic system. Updated information collection will start in the coming week.

The system will also eliminate "cooperated enrollment", enrollment agreements that some government departments had with particular middle schools in Beijing that allow their employees' enrollment privileges. Cooperated enrollment, which has existed for 10 years, will come to an end this year.

Li said that students without Beijing hukou — household registration that allows among other things schooling privileges — whose parents work in Beijing will go to schools close to the area where the parents work. The parents must provide five certificates, including their certificate of employment and residence permit — to send the children to middle schools.

Also, some 20 universities and art institutes will begin in September a six-year cooperative agreement with more than 130 elementary schools in Beijing in which university teachers regularly give primary school students art classes. This program will start with the first-grade students.