Parents' craze for good schools likely to continue

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.

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