Gaokao opportunity knocks

A new plan that will for the first time permit certain children of non-local Chinese parents, who work in the city, to take gaokao (national college entrance examination) in Shanghai instead of returning home, is slated for release by the year-end, a senior official said Monday.

While specific details about the students, who will qualify for the special treatment based on their parents' abilities to meet the criteria, have not yet been made final, the city's education commission director made it clear that "only parents who have made great contributions to the city and hold a steady job here would meet the requirements."

Xue Mingyang made the comments on a local radio program Monday, essentially saying that the move would enable more non-local Chinese students, or those without a Shanghai hukou (household registration), to be admitted to Chinese universities based on where their families currently reside, instead of where they come from.

Chinese students from outside provinces, and particularly rural areas, often face tougher competition for university enrollment under the nation's gaokao system, which tends to favor pupils in big cities with proportionately larger quotas.

With the number of local students sitting out the days-long exam declining for a fifth consecutive year, with only some 55,000 high school students registered to take the test in the city next month, the move to open Shanghai's gaokao to a greater number of non-local students is crucial to the future of the city's development, according to Ren Yuan, a professor of sociology at Fudan University's School of Social Development and Public Policy.

"As a city of migrants, it's time for officials to open education resources to the kids of parents who comprise the non-local workforce," he told the Global Times Monday. "But, they need to do so carefully."

Ren said that a fair competition platform for students competing via the country's gaokao system would be conducive to improving the overall quality of education in the city - and the sustainability of its future development given that the non-local workforce has been rapidly expanding.

Last year, non-local workers surpassed their local peers in head count, outnumbering them by 6.73 million workers, or at 52.6 percent of the city's entire workforce.

In the long-term, Shanghai will see an even greater influx of talents from across the country, which will continue to aid development, but the government also needs to provide incentives for these people to stay and maintain the city's achievements, said Ren.