Faster reform helps China improve social equity

BEIJING - A new education policy issued early this month has enabled migrant worker Qin Lihong to make long-term plans for her family.

Qin finally decided to settle down in Qingdao, East China's Shandong province, after living there for eight years, because the provincial government now allows children of migrant workers, like her daughter, to take the college entrance exam there even if they are not permanent residents.

Since different provinces adopt different textbooks and teaching and exam systems, having to take the entrance exam outside the province where the students have studied may put them at a huge disadvantage.

"Our household registrations are not in Qingdao, so our daughter would have had to take the exam in our hometown instead of here, which meant the whole family would have to move back for the exam," said the 32-year-old saleswoman at an electronic appliance store. STAY OR GO?

Although Qin and her husband earn 5,000 yuan (794 U.S. dollars) per month on average, they like Qingdao, a prosperous coastal city.

"That's why we were always wavering between deciding to go home or stay here," she said.

Under the new policy, their daughter, who is currently in her fourth year of primary school, can continue her education in Qingdao without the trouble of transferring to another school.

In Shandong schools, the number of children from migrant families totaled 745,100 last year, a year-on-year rise of 17 percent.

"We adopted this policy hoping to improve the education equality among all students in the province," said Si Jingui, an official in charge of student affairs under Shandong's local education authority.