Abstract
There is an increasing effect of family background on children’s education in China . In this chapter, the author will investigate how family background influences the engagement of families in admission to public junior high schools in Community A of Beijing as a case study. The author will analyze experiences in admission to junior high schools based on interviews with school principals and parents of Community A to visualize how families engaged in junior high school admission by utilizing their various resources. The analysis will follow stages of admission to public junior high schools in Community A to visualize a full process of competition among parents for public school admission in urban China which are based on advantage, privileges, and local characteristics .
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Notes
- 1.
Green Card refers to various certificates issued by Beijing Municipal Government for residents without Beijing hukou . Holders and their children can have the same treatment as Beijing residents. Migrant children whose parents hold the following certificates can be treated as Beijing residents. They include (1) certificates of children of the returned educated urban youth working in countryside, (2) certificate of children of Taiwanese, (3) certificate of children of post doctors, (4) certificate of children of army officials, (5) certificate of children of overseas Chinese, (6) certificate of Beijing resident card issued by Beijing government , (7) certificate of children of employers in CSCEC-Pauly Construction Company Limited, and (8) children of employers from big-scale state-owned enterprises (Beijing Municipal Education Committee, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011).
- 2.
The interview with vice principal of School B was conducted on May 12, 2011.
- 3.
Based on interview with principal of School A which was conducted on April 18, 2011.
- 4.
According to vice principal of School B, in fact, due to population explosion in Beijing, especially for the significant growth of migrant population in Beijing in recent years, policy for migrant children in 2011 became stricter compared with previous years. School admission policy was considered a tool for preventing migrants from rapidly flowing into Beijing. However, in the parents ’ meeting it is difficult for school side to explain this target clearly for migrant parent. Therefore, in most of time in the parent-teacher meeting, vice principle of School B just intentionally avoided touching upon migrant children’s school admission. I took part in the 2 h parent-teacher meeting held by School B on April 27, 2011.
- 5.
The Interview with Parent 1 from School B was conducted on May 10, 2011.
- 6.
No. 12 Middle School is the “demonstration school” in Fengtai District. It is said that this school is considered as the best school in this district.
- 7.
The interview was conducted on May 11, 2011.
- 8.
The interview with Parent 6 from School B was conducted on May 13, 2011.
- 9.
The interview with Parent 4 from School B was conducted on May 12, 2011.
- 10.
The interview with Parent 3 from School A was conducted on May 3, 2011.
- 11.
Interview with Parent 2 from School A was conducted on May 3, 2011.
- 12.
According to Parent 11, the musical instrument class costs between 800 and 1000 yuan per hour. And the total tuition for the training is about 50,000 yuan. According to the Beijing Statistics Bureau, the per capita disposable income of most Beijing residents in 2011 was 32,903 yuan. Therefore, the disposable income for a three-person family (two parents and one child) is 65,806 yuan. The musical instrument tuition is about 76% of the total disposable income for a normal Beijing family.
- 13.
Interview with Parent 3 from School A was conducted on May 4, 2011.
- 14.
Interview with Parent 2 from School B was conducted on May 10, 2011.
- 15.
The interview with Parent 9 from School A was conducted on May 5, 2011.
- 16.
The interview with Parent 5 from School B was conducted on May 13, 2011.
- 17.
Interview with Parent 15 from School A was conducted on May 5, 2011.
- 18.
The ABC English program is offered by ABC Education Corporation in China . The corporation was established in Beijing in 1997. It provides English learning programs from pre-school level to adult level. Retrieved from http://www.abc.com.cn/index.php/rukou, accessed to June 1, 2012.
- 19.
According to the homepage of the University of Cambridge, they started English for speakers of other languages examination program in 1913. From 1992, this program started in China . Cambridge Young Learners English Tests is an English exam system for young learners from 7 to 12 years old. It has three levels from starters to flyers. Retrieved from http://www.cambridgeesolchina.org/index.php, accessed on June 2, 2012.
- 20.
In Beijing, there are teaching and research centers at both the district and city levels. These institutes are in charge of designing unified exams at various levels. Therefore, the teachers’ classes are considered as important resources for students and teachers to prepare for the exams (The information was collected from interview with Parent 1 from School B on May 10, 2011).
- 21.
The interview with Parent 9 from School A was conducted on May 5, 2011.
- 22.
The interview with Parent 4 from School B was conducted on May 12, 2011.
- 23.
The interview with Parent 4 from School A was conducted on May 3, 2011.
- 24.
The interview with Parent 4 from School B was conducted on May 12, 2011.
- 25.
The interview with Parent 11 from School A was conducted on May 5, 2011.
- 26.
The interview with Parent 6 from School B was conducted on May 13, 2011.
- 27.
The interview with Parent 1 from School B was conducted on May 10, 2011.
- 28.
The “legalization” of Zexiao fees is also mentioned in the interview with the principal of School A. Since there is no Zexiao student in School A, School A did not get any income from the charge of Zexiao fees. According to the principal of School A, before the prohibition of Jiedu fees for migrant children , the charge of Jiedu fees from migrant children was paid directly by parents to an account that belonged to the local education authority. About 70% of the collected money from parents in School A was paid back to the school from the local education authority. The rest of the 30% was used for the reconstruction of poor quality schools in the district. This interview with the principal of School A was conducted on April 18, 2011. An interview with the ex-vice principal of School A showed that in the 1990s when School A was in the peak period of its development, the school charged 50,000 yuan, which was the highest Zexiaofei in the school’s history . Based on the standard set up by the local education authority, in general they charged 12,000 yuan from Zexiao students. And at that time, the money collected was not required to be submitted to the local education authority. According to the ex-vice principal of School A, the cost for Zexiao sometimes was more than the Zexiaofei itself. In Beijing, primary school graduates’ identification cards were usually transferred to assigned junior high schools by the local education authority. Students who chose Zexiao had to get their cards back from the assigned schools by themselves. Sometimes, the assigned schools charged a commission fee for parents to get the identification card back. In some cases, it took several thousand yuan (based on an interview with the ex-vice principal of School A, which was conducted on April 18, 2011). The vice principal of School B also shared a similar observation regarding the charge of Zexiao fees. She said that if it was inter-districts transition then parents were normally charged 15,000 yuan. The price had been increased to 30,000 yuan in recent years however. She pointed out that 30,000 yuan was just the amount written in an invoice; the real price of a Zexiaofei was hard to tell. Only the principal and parents knew the exact amounts (based on an interview with the vice principal of School B on May 12, 2011).
- 29.
The interview with Parent 3 from School B was conducted on May 12, 2011.
- 30.
Zexiao fei-based corruption became a hot topic in urban China recently. In 2008, the principal of one famous primary school in Haidian District was arrested on charges of corruption. According to the China News Net, the unauthorized Zexiao fees collected by this school was more than 100 million yuan. Retrieved from http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2008-08/17/content_9424765.htm, accessed on April 2, 2012.
- 31.
According to the Beijing Statistic Bureau, the average monthly salary of people is 4,201 yuan in 2010. Retrieved from http://www.bjstats.gov.cn/, accessed on December 13, 2011. The room rent paid by Parent 5 is beyond the affordability of many families in Beijing. The interview with Parent 5 from School B was conducted on May 13, 2011.
- 32.
The distribution of demonstration school s in Beijing is not in balance . According to the Beijing Municipal Education Committee , in 2010, there were 12 demonstration schools in Dongcheng District, 11 demonstration schools in Haidian District, and 7 demonstration schools in Chaoyang District. In contrast, there were only four demonstration schools in Fengtai District. Retrieved from http://www.bjedu.gov.cn/publish/portal0/tab40/, accessed on June 3, 2012.
- 33.
This information can also be identified on homepage of School C, retrieved from http://bj18.schoolwires.net/domain/14, accessed on June 4, 2012.
- 34.
The interview with ex-vice principal of School A was conducted on April 18, 2011.
- 35.
According to an ex-vice principal of School A (on April 18, 2011), teachers in their 30s are the most transferring group. A story of teacher’s leave for a famous key school was given in the interview. The leave for the key school to gain higher salaries, which are often several times more than their salaries in School A. At the same time, the training subsidy for teachers in that key school was much better than the ones in School A. Teachers were encouraged to go abroad for studying. They were also given subsidies for buying laptops. These benefits are not provided to teachers in School A. There is a huge gap of teachers’ benefits between schools and districts.
- 36.
Interview with an ex-vice principal of School A was conducted April 18, 2011.
- 37.
According to Opinions on the Implementation of Rectifying the Charge of Unauthorized School Fees (Ministry of Education et al., 2003), Zexiao is allowed at the public upper secondary education level. However, the school admission of Zexiao students should follow “three restrictions,” including the restriction of numbers of Zexiao students, restriction of Zexiao fees (maximum 30,000 yuan in Beijing), and the restriction of academic achievement (minimum line). According to an interview with an ex-vice principal of School A, since there is an official standard for the charge of Zexiao fees at the senior high school level, people take for granted Zexiao fees at the junior high school level by following the standard at the junior high school level (the interview was conducted on April 18, 2011).
- 38.
The interview with Parent 11 from School A was conducted on May 11, 2011.
- 39.
According to Parent 5 from School A, his daughter used to study in a key school (9-year school includes both primary education and lower secondary education) in Xicheng District. There were 18 students in his daughter’s class , including 10 local students and 8 students without local hukou . These eight students without local hukou were grandsons of leaders in neighboring provinces. And except his daughter, other local students were children of leaders at the city or district levels in Beijing (the interview with parent from School A was conducted on May 4, 2011).
- 40.
See Hu, Lu, and Xue (2008).
References
Brown, P. (1990). The ‘Third Wave’: Education and the ideology of parentocracy. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 11(1), 65–85.
Hu, Y., Lu, K., & Xue, H. (2008). Zhongxiaoxue Zexiao wenti de shizheng yanjiu-jiyu beijingshi zhongxiaoxue de diaocha (The empirical study on school choice-based on the survey of elementary and secondary schools in Beijing). Jiaoyu Xuebao (Journal of Education Studies), 4(2), 74–78.
Ministry of Education, National Development and Reform Commission, State Council Office for Rectifying, Ministry of Supervision, Ministry of Finance, National Audit Office. (2003). Opinions on implementation of rectifying the charge of unauthorized school fees. Beijing, China.
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Liu, J. (2018). Competition of Family Background with Local Characteristics. In: Inequality in Public School Admission in Urban China. Education in the Asia-Pacific Region: Issues, Concerns and Prospects, vol 43. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-8718-9_6
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