The Ministry of Education suggests in a newly issued plan for education development that migrant workers’ children should receive middle school education and take the gaokao, the national college entrance examination, in the city where their parents work and be enrolled by universities as local students.

This plan concerns the lives of tens of millions of migrant workers’ children. Although they may have taken primary and middle education away from their hometowns, they still have to go back to take the gaokao. More importantly, the content of the gaokao varies from place to place and the same university has different enrollment requirements and policies in different places as well.

It is not the first time that the national education authority has issued similar notices or initiatives. Yet only Shandong, Guangdong and Fujian provinces have indicated so far that they will permit migrant workers’ children to take their gaokao and enjoy local enrollment policies after 2014. Beijing and Shanghai have a number of key universities and appear reluctant to accept the authority’s plan so far.

If local governments refuse to implement the plan, the plan will only exist on paper. The easiest way to make the gaokao a fair test for each student is to have unified test papers and the same admission line nationwide for all students, regardless of their identities and hometowns.

Translated from 21st Century Business Herald

By Li Yang