Anna Zhao

    anna.whizh@yahoo.com

    Students of migrant families who will study in Shenzhen’s junior high schools from 2014 to 2016 will be able to take their senior high school entrance examinations in Shenzhen if their parents meet certain requirements, announced the Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau on January 3.

    The regulations require that the students’ parents should have lawful jobs and a lawful residence in Shenzhen. Secondly, they should hold valid residence permits for at least three consecutive years and have paid social security in the city for at least three years. The specific senior high schools to which such students will be able to apply have different requirements, such as a student’s household registration, or hukou, their parents’ social security payment history and other conditions. Students whose parents can’t meet those criteria can take senior high school entrance exams in the city but can only apply to private schools or local technical schools. The policy on senior high school entrance examinations in 2014 and 2015 will remain unchanged during the transitional period.

    Zhang Ying, a Junior 1 student at Xin’an Middle School, is among the huge number of children of migrant families to benefit from the policy.“I think the new policy is more considerate because I don’t have to take my senior high school entrance exams back in my hometown where school lessons are offered very differently,” Zhang said. She migrated with her parents from Sichuan Province to the city when she was in the third year of primary school but still has her household registration in Sichuan. The policy will be adjusted in 2017 according to the city’s public senior school seats and the number of students.

    A spokesperson from the municipal education bureau said that the municipal government will invest 2.8 billion yuan (US$461 million) to add 30,000 school seats in the next four years by building or renovating 15 public senior high schools in the city. By the end of this year, the city will finish the construction of Yitian Senior High School and a campus expansion program for Shenzhen Experimental School.