Fair college entrance exams for all

A 15-year-old non-Shanghai female student is striving for her right to take part in gaokao, the national college entrance exam, in Shanghai, with a high-profile micro blog, says an article in 21st Century Business Herald. Excerpts:

She would like to debate local Shanghai parents who are firmly against children from outside the municipality taking gaokao with their kids, and who even demean migrant students as "locusts".

Some Beijing parents also worry that once the door is open, children of powerful families in other cities will take gaokao in Beijing and compete with local kids.

Most quality higher-education resources are concentrated in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and the admission scores are mostly lower for city students. The holder of a household registration in a big city means he or she has easier access to better education. That's why kids in Beijing and Shanghai have become the targets of envy from their counterparts in other parts of China.

China now has a migrant population of 230 million. The migrants' children have been allowed to receive primary and middle education in the city for a long time. The problem is the gaokao test papers vary from place to place. It is unfair for them to go back home to take local gaokao, which is different from the gaokao they are supposed to prepare for in their middle schools.

The education authority should alter the colleges' admission quota for each province, autonomous region and municipality, according to the number of local migrants, which should be reported by local education authorities. This move will ensure the migrant population will not necessarily aggravate the gaokao competition in the cities.

Meanwhile, local education authorities must make the qualification standards clear and fair to ensure most migrant students take gaokao in their long-term places of residence, while eliminating the possibility that some students may move into the cities just to take gaokao.

The migrant students' parents' taxation records and labor contracts can serve as important evidence to prove their long-term stay and work in the places.