ecns [expanded by feedex.net]: College test opens to all residents

ecns [expanded by feedex.net]

ecns

College test opens to all residents
http://www.ecns.cn/2012/12-31/43210.shtml
Dec 31st 2012, 05:37

















2012-12-31 14:37 Global Times     Web Editor: Gu Liping
comment


Parents hold signs reading 'Beijing, I am disappointed,' outside the Beijing Education Commission on November 22. Photo: Li Hao/GT




After nine-months of foot dragging, the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education announced Thursday it would honor rules from the central government and no longer block out-of-towners from taking the national College Entrance Examinations.


But the local authorities, who are under pressure from long-time Beijingers to keep migrants out of the school system, waited until the last possible moment to announce the changes, causing untold inconvenience to thousands of families.


According to the new policy, high school graduates who studied in Beijing for three years with parents who have had resident permits, stable income, permanent accommodation, and social insurance for six years can sit the exam in Beijing. The policy is valid from the start of 2014.


But officials announced the new policy after December deadlines for registering for the College Entrance Examinations had passed.


Prior to the change in policy, parents without local household registration certificates were forced to send their children back to their hometowns to enroll in high school, usually for several years, or their children would be shut out of university.


Minister of Education Yuan Guiren promised in March that the ministry would launch a policy concerning non-local test takers by the end of 2012, and would request local commissions to implement the details.


Migrant parents said that their children deserve the same rights to education as local children, since they are also taxpayers. "Our child started her education here in primary schools and it's not fair to her," a mother surnamed Jin said, adding that her daughter fears that her college education might be postponed due to the lateness of the announcement.


Many parents could not wait until the policy's release, and decided to send their children overseas to study, or back home to register in schools in the regions where their parents are registered.


Discriminatory rules against migrants exist to protect the infrastructure of big cities like Beijing, which offer the best medical care, education and social services in the country. Local people fear the facilities will be overwhelmed by migrants.


Dozens of migrant parents assembled at the complaint office of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education every Thursday since September, asking for the new policy. They were brushed off every time.


Some Beijing residents started showing their discontent by either cursing the demonstrators at the complaint office, or making inflammatory remarks online. In one case, a Web user challenged the migrants to a physical fight.


Chu Zhaohui, a researcher with the China National Institute for Education Research, said that a fair city should offer equal treatment to everyone - long-time locals and migrants. "A child should be judged not by the location of their household registration, but by the content of their character," Chu said.


Local students need lower grades than students from other provinces to get into the country's top schools, many of which are in Beijing.












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