Recruits enrolled at Fudan University in this 2015 file photo. [Photo/IC]

Thousands can choose to sit for national college exam in Guangdong, instead of returning home

Nearly 10,000 children whose parents are migrant workers in Guangdong province will be allowed to take this year's college entrance examination－or gaokao－in the province without returning to their hometown, according to the provincial examinations authority.

It is the first year that South China's economic hub, which attracts tens of millions of migrant workers from across the country, will lift all the restrictions regarding hukou, or household registration, for students entering the college entrance exam.

Migrant workers previously had to send their children back to their hometowns to take the exam, even though the children attended high school in the cities where their parents worked.

To safeguard social fairness and maintain its migrant labor force, the Guangdong government has gradually reformed the system.

For students to take the gaokao in Guangdong, at least one parent must have a legal, stable residence and job, and must have held a residence permit and bought social insurance in Guangdong for at least three consecutive years. As well, the students must have completed their three-year high school studies in the province.

Nearly 13,000 high school students who are graduating this summer are children of migrant workers, and almost 10,000 of them applied to take the exam in Guangdong, according to the province's Education Examinations Authority.

More than 95 percent of them were accepted.

"Lifting the hukou restrictions on the gaokao can clear migrant workers' worries about their children's education and attract more talent to Guangdong," said Chen Xuejie, director of college enrollment at the provincial authority of examinations and enrollment.

"Solving the problem for migrant workers' children seeking further education is not only an education issue but is also related to population management and the allocation of social resources," Chen said.

Huang Youwen, deputy director of the provincial authority of examinations and enrollment, assured local students that the new policy won't affect this year's college admission rate much as the number of students in Guangdong is smaller than last year.

"And we have been winning support from the Ministry of Education to expand the college enrollment quota for Guangdong students," Huang said.

By XU JINGXI (China Daily)