Small gesture, big step for equal education

A long-awaited gesture by China's metropolitan authorities has helped the country take a big leap forward in offering equal education to children of urbanites and migrants alike.

When it comes to education, probably nothing could cheer the millions of migrant workers more than the announcements by Beijing and Shanghai cities and Guangdong Province on Sunday to gradually allow their children to attend local senior high schools and sit college entrance exams.

The plans, based on how long the migrant parents have worked in a city and whether the children completed junior high school there, are the latest among those outlined by a total of 13 provinces and municipalities.

Although still quite prudent and could take up to four years to be fully in place, the plans have demonstrated the genuine good will of developed regions to take seriously the welfare of migrant workers who have contributed immensely to the rise of cities.

Equal access to education resources all across the country has never been so imperative in today's China with more than 250 million farmers working in cities and a dogmatic household registration system confining their children to schooling in their hometown.

Previous government efforts have led to children attending primary and junior high schools in cities where their parents work, but what becomes of them afterwards has remained controversial.

Urban parents grow concerned that equal competitors from out of town will put their own children in a less advantaged position when accessing already scarce school resources.