Island county in Zhejiang guarantees high school for all students

To address demographic challenges and promote educational equity, Shengsi county of Zhejiang province has removed the selective function of its high school entrance exam, ensuring high school admission for all local students.

Starting from the fall semester of 2025, all students with local household registration or meeting residency requirements in the remote island county would be assured admission to regular high schools. This policy resulted in the enrollment of all 266 applicants, achieving an 81 percent county-wide regular high school attendance rate.

The reform is motivated by the county's unique demographic challenges. As a remote archipelago county with a population of just 64,000, Shengsi faces an extremely low birth rate and outmigration. These problems have severely impacted the region's socio-economic development, as well as its education.

The policy has sparked online discussion in China. With senior high school admission rates hovering around 50 percent in many regions, numerous netizens have remarked that, given the decline of the school-aged population, a reduction in academic pressure is inevitable. Many view the county's reform as a potential beginning of a broader shift.

According to Qiu Cun'an, director of the county's education bureau, the initiative can offer a solution to other counties. "Accessible, quality education is what every resident on this island longs for. In recent years, we have achieved remarkable progress in high-quality education, and we will strive to improve the education ecosystem further, so that every child in Shengsi can enjoy high-quality education," the director said.