Parents' craze for good schools likely to continue

Education equality has always been a hot topic at the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. This year is no exception, especially after the Ministry of Education said it would launch reforms to reduce the percentage of schools that can admit students solely on the basis of their academic records. But the reform is easier said than done.

From next year, at least 90 percent of students passing out of primary schools in 19 major cities can enrol in nearby junior middle schools, and by 2016 not more than 5 percent of them can be students with special talents in arts and sports. This means 10 percent of the key middle schools can decide which candidates to admit based on their academic scores in selective exams. The question is: How do we determine which schools will not follow the new regulation?

Key middle schools probably account for 10 percent of the total in big cities. And if they are excluded from the ministry's new regulation, there will not be much change in parents' craze for selecting "good" schools for their children. Since most of the middle schools that enrol students with special talents are considered good, parents are willing to spend huge amounts of money to put their children through all kinds of extracurricular courses to get them admitted to such schools through the special quota.

Students in China, just like those in many foreign countries, seek admission to schools near their homes. But the use of money and relationships by parents to get their children admitted to "good" schools breeds corruption. And such illegal practices could continue even after the introduction of the new education policy.

Many parents have shifted homes to get their children admitted to "good" schools, forcing housing prices to rise drastically in areas that have prestigious schools. For example, shortly after the new policy was issued, the price of a 54-square-meter house near Zhongguancun in Beijing, where several key middle schools are located, increased by 200,000 yuan ($32,560) over the already high 3.45 million yuan.

The emphasis on enrollment in nearby schools has strengthened the idea of "district housing". Compared with "prerogative school choosing", district housing is a kind of progress because it reduces the scope of power-for-money deals. But it has the potential to turn into a competition of wealth, for only the wealthy can buy (or rent) homes in areas with good schools.

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.