Migrating college candidates could be left out in cold
By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-03 05:45

Which location?

"Exam migrants move just as water flows to the lower places," said Hong Chengwen, a professor at Beijing Normal University.

"It is only natural that the takers and their parents want to go to places where the yardstick is more lax - because they have detected the inequity," said Ding Dong, a Chinese culture scholar. "I don't think this is something to be judged now that we operate in a market economy."

The exam migration patterns are easy to follow. Few, if any, move to Beijing, Shanghai or Tianjin. It is virtually impossible to obtain residency permits in these municipalities that are administrated directly by the central government.

In Hainan, an outsider can buy a tiny apartment measuring just 25 square metres to qualify for residency. Hainan has plenty of unsold apartments left from the overheated property market in the early 1990s.

A migrant must shell out 4,000-5,000 yuan (US$493-616) for a residency permit and another 20,000 yuan (US$2,466) for two years of school fees, plus expenses. With almost 10,000 student migrants last year, millions of yuan was pumped into the island's economy.

Local schools enjoy the arrangement because most migrants pay tuition fees but only show up for a few exams. Their performances can help bump up the average score, giving the schools something to boast about. One Hainan high school suddenly added four more classes at the end of the spring semester.

Some private schools from the hinterland regularly send out recruiters to high-scoring provinces, promising one-stop services including securing a residence permit.

Schools in high-scoring regions do not like to see their students leave, but "What can we do? We also want the best for them," lamented a teacher in Heze, a city in Shandong Province.

Li's teachers in Hubei were impressed by their favourite student, recalling he had complained about the "hot weather in Hainan." He was pressured into moving by his parents, they explained.

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