Guangdong Province will start allowing graduating high-school students without a Guangdong hukou (household registration) to take the gaokao (National College Entrance Exam) in the province this year. More than 10,000 migrant students filed applications to sit for the gaokao in Guangdong Province this year. Over 9,000 have received approvals, according to Luo Weiqi, the director of the Guangdong Provincial Education Department, also a deputy to the National People’s Congress. Luo said, during the two sessions of the NPC and CPPCC, the number of migrant students approved to take the gaokao in Guangdong was not a large figure, but may increase in the future. With an increasing number of students moving to Guangdong to study, the limited education resources are becoming a burden for many cities in the province. Luo said Shenzhen is now home to a large number of students who lack a Guangdong hukou. The Shenzhen government needs to purchase places at private schools to meet the needs of students who could not apply to study at public schools. Luo said that the province had spent around 550 million yuan (US$84.54) supporting private schools last year. In past years, students without a local hukou could not participate in the national exam in Guangdong, but had to return to their home cities to take the exam. Luo also shared his views on the new document featuring reforms in the province’s gaokao that was recently released to the public. Luo said the reforms would be carried out smoothly thanks to a transitional period. The new gaokao system would be adopted officially in 2018. Students would be able to choose their exam subjects based on their interests in the future, said Luo. The new exam system will require students to choose three elective exam subjects in addition to the traditional subjects: Chinese, math and English. Luo also responded to other heated education topics such as the low entrance rate of first-tier universities in Guangdong and the partition of different school districts. (Zhang Qian) | 