Over 85 percent of Beijing students who may receive bonus points in their college entrance examinations, or the gaokao, were from ethnic minority groups, Beijing education authorities said Sunday.
A total of 6,391 ethnic minority examinees are qualified to receive five extra points on their 2016 gaokao scores if they apply to colleges run by Beijing's municipal government, the Beijing Times said Monday, citing a report posted on the official website of the Beijing Education Examination Authority.
The merit points system for ethnic minorities was established decades ago to help narrow the education gap between the Han and ethnic minority groups, said Jin Wei, director of the Office of Religious Affairs at the Party School of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
But as times have changed, the value of the policy has become more and more questionable. The preferential policy may lead to inequality in education and reverse discrimination against the ethnic Han group, Lao Kaisheng, a professor of education at Beijing Normal University, told the Global Times in a previous interview.
Given the large number of Chinese students competing in the gaokao, several extra points could make a difference between getting into a high-level university or a mid-level institution.
As a result, many Han Chinese often complain that policies favoring ethnic minorities constitute "unfair competition."
According to a survey conducted by the China Youth Daily in 2014, more than 64 percent of 46,659 respondents believed that the "extra points" system, like the US' "affirmative action" policy, had harmed the interests of the majority of students.
The education authorities' report noted that in 2017, bonus points will only be granted to ethnic minority students who "transferred to Beijing middle schools from areas on the borders, in mountainous regions, in herding regions or inhabited by ethnic minorities."
"Removing ethnic minority students born and brought up in Beijing from the merit points system will ensure that the gaokao is more just and equitable," Xiong said.
However, Jin suggested that future merit point systems be based on education quality in different regions rather than on the presence of ethnic minority groups.
