China's entrance exam migration does not help all students

04/17/2003
China Daily

The National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) always attracts attention every summer. But it has grabbed the limelight earlier than usual this year, with the "NCEE migrants" hitting the headlines recently.

These "NCEE migrants" refer to students and their families who move from their hometowns to regions where lower scores are accepted for college enrollment or higher admission rates are guaranteed. They register for exam there to get better access to universities and colleges.

Less-developed regions with lower educational levels have the lowest score requirements because of preferential policies.

The phenomenon of students migrating to improve their enrollment prospects first appeared in the mid-1980s and has become more popular in recent years.

Yet it has also attracted protests from students in the destination provinces because the extra competition could affect their chances of admission. Local governments have also adopted tough policies banning this kind of migration.

It was reported that several thousand students around the country caught out by the migration ban will have to go back to their hometowns for the exam.

Such bans increase the costs and risks of exam migration but cannot tackle the root cause of the problem.

The use of different admission scores in different regions aims to bridge the gaps in educational and economic levels. But, decades after the adoption of the policy, this goal has not been achieved because most college students later settle in developed regions, contributing little to less-developed provinces. The educational and economic gaps that exist today between different regions are still wide.

Exam migrants also argue that it is unfair that students in Hainan Province can be enrolled in a major university, while students in Shandong Province with the same score cannot even gain admission to a vocational training school.

Exam migration is a challenge for the educational system in this country. There is a pressing need to make college admission and access to education fair.

A single admission standard is not realistic given the country's current circumstances. But measures like allowing colleges to enroll students by administering their own exams instead of the national one might improve the situation.

The government should increase funding to education in less-developed regions and improve their schooling standards across-the-board, instead of merely lowering their college admission requirements.

With better education, the students there will be able to achieve better scores to compete with their counterparts in other regions. The government should also develop favorable policies to encourage college graduates to go to work in less-developed regions.