Last week was Dandelion School’s recruiting week. Every day lots of parents bring their children to school to sign up for the entrance test and interview. Surprisingly, this entire recruiting process is very competitive. Both the entrance test and interview are selective. I overheard a conversation between the school administrator Chen and a couple parents. The parents were trying to get one more opportunity for their children, who failed the entrance test. In general, around 800 children signed up for the tests and around 100 did not show up. Among the 700 children who actually took the test, the school could only accept 240 children this year, reaching the maximum set by the Beijing City Board of Education(北京市教育委员会). The acceptance rate is roughly 34%. Noticeably, around 40 children got into the school due to their parents’ special connection to the neighborhood’s administration committee or local governments. The school has no choice but to 'accept' them, because once they refuse, the regulators in local neighborhood and government will ceaselessly make trouble for the school. |
As competitive as the interview and test could be, the selection process begins even before that. In order to become qualified to sign up for entrance tests, students and their family have to provide five certificates, according to the regulation enforced by Beijing City Board of Education. Here is a list of them: 1.老家无人看管的证明 Proof of Absence of Care by Parents or Guardian in hometown 2.家长和孩子的户口本 Hukou, or Household Registration 3.外地人来北京的暂住证 Temporary Residence Permit 4.在北京的居住证明 Proof of Residence in Beijing 5. 家长工作证明 Proof of Employment Along with these five certificates, a potential student also needs a 学籍(records of student status) to qualify himself for enrollment at Dandelion. All these documentations are nothing but an extra burden on these financially unsecured families with low social status, creating an absolute barrier to education for their children. Collecting all the information often requires bribing, multiple trips back to their hometown, and significant amount of effort and time. An interview with the admission officer Ms. Hao was conducted earlier this week, and we will dig into the obstructive effects of these requirements with more details in my next blog post. It is ironic to see how the government enforces the ‘Twelve year compulsory education’ policy on the one hand, yet on the other hand sets so many unfeasible standards to mark a student unqualified for receiving education. With all these qualifications, Dandelion School will definitely become more legitimate, providing education for kids from more ‘urbanized’ area. However, it is not another regular middle school that Beijing needs, but rather a middle school specially for Beijing’s migrant population. If Dandelion is no longer doing that, Dandelion disappears. |