Chinese Education System

Throughout decades, educational opportunities have always been unevenly distributed in contemporary China in which it is further exacerbated by the hukou system. Education plays a crucial role in Chinese history and it is widely regarded as one of the key determinants of future income and occupational attainment in modern China in which the Chinese government has made nine years of compulsory education across China. However, the teaching materials and school qualities vary widely within provinces with lack of basic infrastructures in rural schools such as functional blackboards, sufficient number of chairs and desks as well as access to electricity and water supply (Brown, 2006, p.763). Besides, the shortages for well trained and experienced …show more content…
Rural children are vulnerable under the hukou system in which these children often feel helpless in their future as the system is the main obstacle for them to acquire an uninterrupted schooling experience. It is as if their lives are fated by their hukou, not only do they need to work harder than those from the cities in order to get into a top-notch university, they also need to adapt to the differing quality of educations that exist between the countrysides and the cities. Textbooks of instructions, teaching styles and the standards of school curriculum differ between region in which they often cause inconsistencies in education for migrant children. Furthermore, Liu & Jacob (2013) state that ‘ the entrance exam for higher education in rural areas is more difficult and competitive than urban areas and that rural students have to get higher grades to enter into top universities relative to their students from the cities’ (p.184).Therefore, migrant children are often contradicted by immense pressures to get into top schools and the feelings of helplessness caused by the hukou system as they are losing at the starting point in life when compared to children from the cities. If the Chinese government does not amend the hukou system, the education disparity between rural and urban children can never be resolved and will remain as a cycle in each generations. Children from cities will continue to have better opportunities in education and outperform those from the countryside. Nevertheless, as the hukou-based educational policy persists, it leaves migrant parents no choice but to send their children back to their hometowns or vice versa , resulting in an increasing phenomena of left-behind migrant