The Beijing education authorities have allowed students to get admitted to nearby middle schools and students with special talents to enrol in key schools. But their failure to strictly implement the policy at the district level has left many parents disappointed. In 2012, a student could take any one of the 15 selection exams to get admitted to a junior middle school in Beijing's eight districts. This school-selection process has seen the power of money and relationships compete with outstanding academic scores.
The past couple of years have seen the emergence of new admission methods in middle schools. For example, highly popular middle schools select fifth graders in advance. Besides, some prestigious middle schools in Beijing have a quota exclusively for children of officials from some ministries. The education authorities have to come up with targeted solutions to such problems.
To reduce parents' craze of selecting "good" schools for their children, balance education resources, develop private schools and encourage enrollment in nearby schools, China can use the valuable experiences of some developed countries. Like China, Japan too has a nine-year compulsory education system. Teachers in Japan are transferred from one school to another every five years to guarantee that education resources and quality of teaching are well-balanced among all schools. As a result, Japanese rarely need to select one middle school over another when their children pass out of primary schools.
Students in the United States, too, get admitted in neighborhood schools, although the quality of education in different districts could vary a lot. But as long as parents rent a house in a particular school district and furnish the gas, water or electricity bill as poof of residence to the school, their children can enjoy all the education welfare and get admitted to elite schools.
Compared with some developed countries, China still has a long way to go to in making the school admission process smooth in its cities. Even if school facilities and quality of teachers in China are largely balanced, and the policy that regulates students studying in nearby schools during the nine-year free compulsory education period works, parents still cannot resist the lure of prestigious schools because of the brand effect. Therefore, some parents' craze to select "good" schools for their children will continue.
The author is an associate researcher at the Research Center for International Comparative Education, affiliated to the National Institute of Education Sciences.
