Closing the education gap

Editor's note:

The current nationwide policy in China requires students to take their college entrance examinations, known as gaokao, in the locality listed on their permanent residence permit, or hukou. Universities' enrollment systems are always more favorable to applicants from first-tier cities, with benefits including lower entry scores and a greater selection of top-class universities. This results in many migrant students, or children of migrant workers in big cities, missing out on enrolling at their desired universities.

Last month, almost 300 migrant worker parents appealed to the Ministry of Education in the largest-scale petition calling for reform of their children's education in recent years. Metro Beijing reporter Yan Shuang witnessed the petition and detailed how it unfolded in a story titled Parents appeal for right to equal education published in this newspaper on February 24.

The story:

Hundreds of migrant worker parents in Beijing petitioned the Ministry of Education on February 23, hoping to meet with Minister of Education, Yuan Guiren, to call for an easing of hukou--related restrictions for migrant students taking the gaokao.

Parents gathered at the ministry's complaints office in Xicheng district and five representatives negotiated with ministry officials, but no substantial progress was made. Yuan didn't meet with the migrant parents, and police dispersed the crowd around noon to prevent the demonstration escalating.

Good news for the migrant parents came over a week later on March 3, when Yuan announced new measures for migrant students taking gaokao exams that would take effect in 10 months' time. Migrant parents must be employed in the cities they and their children live, while cities' capacity to take students in for exams will also be considered.

The back-story:

This was my second time reporting on a mass petition. Last year, I went to report on a gathering of sub-agents of underground dwellings who were lobbying the municipal government for compensation after they had evicted tenants. On that occasion, I was forcibly taken to the Beijing municipal petition office in Fengtai district by police who accused me of being a "riot participant." This was because I was nearby a scuffle that broke out between demonstrators and police, the latter whom detained rowdy demonstrators.