i MERIT OR BARRIER? RETHINKING EQUITY IN CHINA’S POINTS-BASED ADMISSION POLICY FOR MIGRANT CHILDREN A Research Paper In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Regional Planning by Wanyu Chen 05/2025 ii CORNELL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE, ART, AND PLANNING DEPARTMENT OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING APPROVAL OF RESEARCH PAPER, PROFESSIONAL REPORT, or THESIS (choose one type of exit project and delete the other two along with this line) Name of Candidate: Wanyu Chen First Name Middle Name/Initial Family/Last Name Graduate Field: CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING Degree: MASTER OF REGIONAL PLANNING (M.R.P.) Title: Merit of Barrier? Rethinking Equity in China’s Points-Based Admission Policy for Migrant Children COMMITTEE SIGNATURES: Chairperson: Date: 4/23/2025 Member: Date: 4/23/2025 Member: Date: Member: Date: Member: Date: LICENSE TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL I do hereby give license to Cornell University and all of its faculty and staff to use the above-mentioned copyrighted material in any manner consonant with, or pursuant to, the scholarly purposes of Cornell University, including lending such materials to students or others through its library services or through interlibrary services or through interlibrary loan, and delivering copies to sponsors of my research, but excluding any commercial us of such material. This license shall remain valid throughout the full duration of my copyright. ________Wanyu Chen_________ Student Signature © 2025 (Wanyu Chen] ABSTRACT This paper examines China’s point-based school admission system (PES) as a governance tool managing migrant children’s access to urban public education. Rooted in the hukou system, PES allocates school seats based on quantifiable indicators such as housing, insurance, and parental background. Although intended to enhance fairness and efficiency, the system has reinforced educational inequality. Privileged migrant families can meet scoring thresholds, while lower-income groups are excluded by rigid criteria and commodified items like paid certificates. The inclusion of extracurricular achievements also adds academic pressure. Drawing on policy reviews and case studies from cities like Beijing, Dongguan, and Shenzhen, this study argues that PES reflects broader urban development priorities while exacerbating social divisions. It concludes that PES, though innovative in form, poses critical challenges for equitable urban integration. iii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Wanyu Chen is a Master of Regional Planning student at Cornell University. Her research and professional interests include migration and housing problems, urban studies, rural- urban migration, and education development. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Geography and Resource Environment from Beijing Forestry University, China. 1 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my advisors, Prof. Nancy Brooks and George Frantz. Thank you for your help and revision suggestions. It is our joint efforts that have completed this article. Thank you to my lovely family, and I have been able to come here by standing on your shoulders. What’s lost in the shadows of the past cannot be retrieved; yet the path ahead glows with brilliance. 2 CONTENT ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................i BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .........................................................................................................1 LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. 3 LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................4 1. Literature Review ................................................................................................................5 2. Background ......................................................................................................................... 8 3. Problem Illustration ..........................................................................................................11 4. Reasons for Problems ....................................................................................................... 23 5. My Views ........................................................................................................................... 32 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................................................................................................37 3 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 . China's Educational System ........................................................................100 4 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Population Size and Proportion of Urban and Rural Children Aged 0-17 in China (1982-2020) ................................................................................................ 13 5 1. Literature Review Since 1958, China has operated a hukou system that assigns hukou status to each citizen or legal resident based on the birthplace of the head of household. Local governments are responsible for issuing agricultural or non-agricultural hukou to family members. The system broadly recognizes both rural and urban identities, with different regions defining the privileges, access to resources and social status of each province or special area (Kuang & Liu, 2012) This system is a means of good management of the population. China is a country built on agriculture and has been deeply tied to it since ancient times. Many of the revolutions that erupted in ancient China centered around the phrase: land for the cultivator. The household registration system is another way of tying people to the land. The Constitution of the People's Republic of China stipulates that all citizens enjoy equal citizenship rights, but in reality, migrants and their children still face social exclusion and lack of resources. China's economy has taken off since the reform and opening up, and its rapid economic growth has attracted worldwide attention, with migrant workers playing a significant role in this development. Most of them come from underdeveloped provinces and choose to work in big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai in order to make a living and earn a higher salary. However, without a hukou in the city where they work, they can only have the status of non-residents and are considered as “floating population” in the national census (Zhou & Cheung, 2017). According to the Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Comprehensively 6 Strengthening Population and Family Planning Work and Addressing Population Issues in a Comprehensive Manner, one of the focuses of the plan is to coordinate the development of urban, rural and regional areas in a coordinated manner, and to guide the orderly movement and rational distribution of population (Ma, n.d.). Urbanization, by relaxing social systems and encouraging mobility, will create new opportunities for migrant workers and their children(Magazine, 2016). In the 1990s and early 2000s, China implemented a household registration system (hukou) that severely restricted access to public schools for children of migrants, resulting in a small number of migrant children being unable to receive formal education in the cities. They had only two choices: to return to their place of origin or to stay in private schools in the big cities, and in 2001, the Opinions on Improving the Management and Services for Farmers Moving to Cities for Work and Employment introduced for the first time the idea that public schools should accept eligible migrant children and abolish the “borrowing fee” (Ruan, n.d.). A series of social opinions arose. Mainstream opposition came from the city's indigenous residents, whose children were being forced into the city by the influx of children from the floating population, who were being squeezed out of the learning opportunities that should have belonged to them, and the intense competition that made it difficult for the city residents to cope with the pressure. Around 2010, a points-based enrollment policy was proposed. In 2009, Zhongshan City in Guangdong Province was the first city to propose the implementation of a points- based enrollment policy (Zhongshan City People's Government Office, n.d.). This policy pioneered the linkage of a number of comprehensive indicators to 7 enrolment quotas, changing the previous one-size-fits-all situation in which household registration determined everything. The implementation of the policy has brought positive feedback and facilitated the promotion of the system. The Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, in 2009, proposed that children of migrant workers from overseas should be allowed to study in Beijing on a borrowed basis, and that no borrowing fee should be charged (Beijing Municipal Commission of Education, n.d.). The education commissions of all districts and counties should take measures to coordinate planning, unify management, and effectively do a good job of enrolling children of migrants in compulsory education in their districts and counties. Opening up public school places to migrant children is a significant step forward in the development of public education in Beijing. Prior to 2000, Beijing's public schools basically did not accept migrant children, and in the absence of a school registration, parents were required to pay a high loan fee ($1,000-$1,500), which was almost equivalent to the income of a migrant worker for an entire year at that time (Lu, 2011; Wang, 2008). This is not an isolated case of Beijing, as the capital city with a special status, Beijing's attitude can almost represent that of the country. All this changed when the points-based enrollment system was proposed. 8 2. Background a. The History of Education System Development in China With its vast territory and large population, China has been an important part of the world's development since ancient times. Whether in terms of land area, population base or political and economic status, China is a force to be reckoned with in the world. In the Oracle Bone Age (1300 BC to 1000 BC), the earliest excavated written records in China, there was a writing system that indicated “learning”; in the Sui Dynasty (605 AD), the emperor created the imperial examination system, which was used to select officials of the dynasty; and in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the college entrance examination system was introduced nationwide, which was also the first time that the Chinese Government had introduced a college entrance examination system. In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the college entrance examination system was introduced nationwide and is now one of the most important education systems in China. Throughout its thousands of years of history, China has never interrupted education, and the education system has continued to evolve and develop along the way. The criteria for reviewing education have also changed time and again. The earliest education in China emphasized the moral qualities of the people who were selected and created the system of judging filial piety and integrity. Later, as feudal centralization and centralized power increased, acquired qualities other than one's own moral qualities, such as military and writing ability, were increasingly emphasized, and with the abdication of the last emperor in 1911, China's long feudal dynasty ended, and so did the education 9 system, which had been designed to select talents for the rulers and to maintain feudal rule, and entered into a long period of discovery. Since ancient times, Chinese society has long practiced the class system of “Shih, Nong, Gong, and Shang”1. Although there is no system to solidify this hierarchical concept, the conceptual barrier cannot be eradicated. The term “shi” stood for scholar- daifu, and the way to become a member of this highest class was not only to come from the aristocracy, but also to change one's own class through the imperial examination system. After thousands of years of evolution, the Chinese people's pursuit of education and degrees is almost fanatical, which makes China's education model and phenomenon have its own uniqueness. b. Introduction of the University Entrance Examination Modern education is adapted to modern industrial societies and is centered on the universalization of modern scientific and cultural knowledge (Boli et al., 1985). China's national unified examination for enrollment in ordinary schools of higher education is a selective examination taken by qualified high school graduates or candidates with equivalent academic ability (Wikipedia contributors, 2025c). At the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the university entrance examination was the mode of each school's own test paper and separate entrance examination, which is somewhat similar to the current application system of American universities. After a ten- year hiatus due to political turmoil, the college entrance examination system was restored by the government in 1976 and is still the most important talent selection system in China. 1 The Four Peoples was the basic division of labor among the commoners' occupations in ancient China, referring to Shi (scholars), agriculture, industry, and commerce, but the order of which has varied through the ages. 10 In 2023, the number of applicants for the college entrance examination in China was 12.91million, which is almost equivalent to the overall population of a medium-sized country, and this number is still rising year by year. The college entrance examination has become a problem that every Chinese family must face. The General College Entrance Examination is organized and dispatched by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China and is based on the Examination Syllabus published by the Ministry of Education and prepared by the Examination and Education Institute of the Ministry of Education or the Livelihood Education and Examination Institute, which is an independent organization. The General College Entrance Examination is a closed- book examination in which the compulsory subjects are language, mathematics and foreign language (mostly English). The three optional subjects vary according to individual choice. Figure 1. China's Educational System Source: MOE, P.R.C (Guo et al., 2019) 11 3. Problem Illustration a. Current Situations At present, China has already universalized the nine-year compulsory education system and has put on the agenda the universalization of 12-year compulsory education, that is to say, with the support of the State, all citizens will receive free and mandatory education at senior high school and below. The policy pursued by the authorities is to “say whether it is available or not, and then talk about whether it is good or not”, and this methodology of constantly making the cake bigger seems to have some problems when it comes to dividing the cake. For an ordinary Chinese family, preparation for the college entrance examination begins the moment the child is born. What's more, one of the key reasons for the younger generation to choose their place of work when they are unmarried and childless is whether or not the gaokao policy in that place is tough. In 2013, China initially established a nationwide unified school registration information management system, which has since tied students' eligibility for admission to school to their place of study. There have long been many controversies over the gaokao system, and the most central one is always the issue of fairness. Discussions on the issue of fairness have focused on a few components, different score lines, different educational resources, and different barriers to entry. The enrollment quota and admission policy of the college entrance examination varies among different provinces. Some economically developed provinces with rich educational resources (e.g., Beijing and Shanghai) tend to enjoy higher admission rates and quotas for enrollment in key universities, while competition is 12 fiercer in the central and western regions where educational resources are relatively scarce. Migrants from the college entrance exams have emerged. Family economic conditions have a greater impact on the quality of a student's education. Better-off families can provide better learning environments, extracurricular tutoring, and educational resources, while students from lower-income families often find it difficult to afford these costs, creating a situation of “unequal starting points,” which hinders the fairness of education. In some cities, parents often have to pay high fees for selective schools or buy expensive school-zone apartments in order to gain access to high-quality schools. This phenomenon has led to the distribution of educational resources being more skewed in favor of better-off families, tilting quality educational opportunities in favor of the wealthy. Problems such as these further exacerbate educational inequality. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China's Seventh National Population Census of 2020 (data as of November 1, 2020), 575 million people live in urban areas, accounting for 63.9% of the urban population (9.0 billion) and 40.8% of the total population (1.41 billion). The number of migrant children2 is 71.09 million, accounting for 23.9% of the total child population. Year Urbanization Rate (%) Child Population (millions) Urban ChildrenUrban Rural Total 2 According to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child is defined as a person under 18 years of age, i.e., a person aged 0-17 years. Migrant children are defined as children aged 0-17 years in the migrant population. The floating population is defined as the population with separated households, minus the population with separated households within the municipal jurisdiction; the separated population is defined as the population whose place of residence does not coincide with the township or city where the household registration is located, and who have been away from the place where the household registration is located for more than half a year. 13 Rate(%) 1982 21.1 68.08 342.02 410.10 16.6 1990 26.4 81.51 301.16 382.67 21.3 2000 36.2 107.42 237.92 345.34 31.1 2010 50.0 124.48 154.44 278.92 44.6 2020 63.9 187.34 110.31 297.66 62.9 Table 1 Population Size and Proportion of Urban and Rural Children Aged 0-17 in China (1982-2020) Source: China Statistical Yearbook 2021, n.d. In 2010 and before, the proportion of urban children in the child population was always significantly lower than the urbanization rate of the total population, which on the one hand was closely related to the higher fertility rate in rural areas, and on the other hand was probably also related to the fact that the children of migrants were unable to enjoy the full range of public services available in urban areas, so they had to remain in rural areas; in the ten years since 2010, the gap between the urban and rural fertility rates has narrowed, and public service policies for migrant children have continued to improve. In the decade since 2010, the gap between urban and rural fertility rates has narrowed, and public service policies for migrant children have continued to improve, with more children moving with their parents to urban areas or going out on their own to study and work, so that by 2020, the proportion of urban children in the child population will be close to the urbanization rate of the total population. 14 b. Introduction of PES The Point-based enrollment system was proposed in response to the uneven distribution of educational resources brought about by the accelerated process of urbanization. With the influx of a large number of migrant workers into the cities, the question of how to provide their children with a fair education in their localities has become a prominent issue. As the traditional distribution of educational resources is usually based on household registration, children of migrants face difficulties in enrolling in schools. As society develops and the concept of fair education becomes more widespread, there are increasing calls to address the education of children of the migrant population, and all sectors of society are gradually realizing that education should cover all children of school age and should not be based on household registration. In the early 2000s, some economically developed cities began to experiment with points-based enrollment systems, incorporating the enrollment of migrants into the urban education system. As early as 1998, the State Education Commission and the Ministry of Public Security promulgated the Interim Measures on Schooling for Migrant Children and Adolescents, which put forward a “two-primary” approach to the compulsory education of migrant children, i.e., the government of the place of influx should be the primary authority, and the primary authority should be the public school; and the Compulsory Education Law, as amended in 2006, stipulates that it should be ensured that children of the migrant population enjoy the right to receive nine years of compulsory education on an equal basis. The Compulsory Education Law, as amended in 2006, specifically provides that children of the floating population shall be guaranteed the right to receive nine years of compulsory education on an equal basis. The Outline of the 15 National Medium- and Long-Term Education Reform and Development Plan (2010-2020) reaffirms the “two-primary” policy of “adhering to the principle that the government of the place of importation should be the primary administrator, and full-time public primary and secondary schools should be the mainstay, in order to solve the problem of schooling for children of the floating population”. c. Problems of PES The points and criteria of the points-based enrollment system are set by the local government itself, and these also reflect the local government's own urban orientation and preferences. The main items include length of residence, social insurance payment, educational qualifications, tax payment status and other bonus points. The policy was issued to guarantee the equal right to education for migrant children, but in the implementation stage, due to the different resources for compulsory education in different places, certain threshold requirements have been put forward in each place as to whether migrant children can receive compulsory education and the quality of education. As it is difficult to improve the hard indicators such as length of residence, social insurance payment and education in a short period of time, the young parents are looking at other plus points. This “other” is also the most criticized point since the implementation of the points-based admission policy. Total Control, Integration and Balance, Categorized Management, and Zonal Ranking. “Total control” means scientific regulation within the carrying capacity of population and resources, etc. ‘Comprehensive and balanced’ means taking into account indicators such as economic capacity, quality of personnel, social management, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%88%86%E7%B1%BB%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86/11058195?fromModule=lemma_inlink https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%89%BF%E8%BD%BD%E8%83%BD%E5%8A%9B/4970204?fromModule=lemma_inlink https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%BA%E5%91%98%E7%B4%A0%E8%B4%A8/659695?fromModule=lemma_inlink https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%A4%BE%E4%BC%9A%E7%AE%A1%E7%90%86/0?fromModule=lemma_inlink 16 development needs, etc., and making scientific arrangements for the system; “Classification management” means that according to the number of migrant householders that different towns and districts can carry and the availability of public education resources, different amounts of school admission quotas are allocated; ‘district ranking’ means that applicants are ranked according to the number of points they have earned and wait for their turn to enjoy the corresponding treatment such as school admission and household registration. The “district ranking” is based on the unit of the township, the applicant according to the points, waiting for the corresponding treatment such as enrollment in the household（Baidubaike contributors, 2014）. Government resources and capacity are important factors in the diffusion of the points-based enrollment policy. Cities with better financial status, higher administrative levels and faster economic development are more likely to adopt this policy (“The State, Business and Education,” 2018). From the city's perspective, the flexibility and control of the dynamic points help the city to select useful talents. At the stage when cities are clear about their own positioning, targeted attraction of talents is a convenient way of development and provides a new space for urban governance. However, to some extent, the very act of differentiating the treatment of citizens based on the contribution of residents tends to form a hierarchical stratification system of citizenship. From a fairness perspective, education resources are public resources, and citizens should enjoy the right to education on an equal footing. 2013 Dongguan Municipal Education Bureau stipulated that 30% of the public school places provided in 2013 would be directly allocated to the children of preferential policy talents and corporate talents, meaning that such people could be enrolled in school directly without points. This move has attracted criticism https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%88%B6%E5%BA%A6%E5%AE%89%E6%8E%92/10957771?fromModule=lemma_inlink 17 from all sectors of the community, the main criticism is that retaining talent is the government's own needs, citizens do not directly benefit from the point, the government such behavior is tantamount to taking public resources to do favors, even if the purpose seems to be very noble, the essence is still a game of fatherhood, or in the destruction of the fairness of the right to education. The current points-based admission policy is still practiced by some cities and there is no uniform standard, so the government is still in the exploratory stage, which means that the policy may change every year. In some cities, blood donation is counted as one of the indicators for points, and the points item in some cities mentions that parents get 2 points for every 100 ml of blood donation, with a ceiling of 30 points. When public welfare activities such as blood donation are involved with direct benefits, the original purpose of the activity may be lost. The blood donation policy should be to encourage citizens to donate blood, but whether or not to donate blood is the right of the citizens themselves. Blood donation is essentially a voluntary act, and in this case, it has become almost mandatory for citizens to donate blood in order for their children to have a better chance of enrolling in school, not consciously and voluntarily, but in order to maximize their own interests. And not all families are suitable to donate blood, and in an involutional situation, those who are not suitable to donate blood are at a disadvantage in the competition, which is equally unfair. The original intention of the points-based admission policy is to alleviate the pressure of admission faced by children of the foreign population and rationalize the deployment of education resources by means as fair as possible, but it seems that during the implementation stage, some disadvantaged families have been dragged into endless 18 competition. Since points-based enrollment is merit-based, that is, admission is made from the top to the bottom of the points list, no one knows how many points can ensure that their children can go to school before the results are announced, and the more the better has become the obsession of every family. Among the additional points announced by the government, some of the channels that can be purchased with money have become hot. Some parents buy certificates of various vocational skills, while others earn points through their children's participation in various competitions. There is no doubt that these points require a lot of financial and time investment. Dongguan City has even introduced the strange policy of awarding two points for a public welfare donation of 1,000 yuan (about 140 U.S. dollars), which has greatly undermined the fairness of points-based enrollment. Low-income people are almost excluded from these vicious competitions. These requirements on the economic income of the floating population are tantamount to invisible barriers, invariably constituting a kind of exclusion for those in the middle and lower strata of the floating population and groups with a weaker sense of belonging to the city. As a matter of fact, those who are able to enroll in local public schools through the points-based enrollment policy basically belong to the middle and upper classes of the migrant population. And what about the group of people who have been screened out again by the policy of helping the lower class to enroll in school? Their children can only go to poorer local private schools or return to their hometowns to study. The academic pressure on Chinese students is unimaginable. In the regions where academic pressure is heaviest, starting in middle school, students’ study from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., a 16-hour-a-day study pattern that lasts for six years, until they graduate from high school. The long hours of studying at the desk take a toll on students' physical and 19 mental health. The points-based admission policy tries to introduce some extracurricular activities and professional skills into the points-based mechanism, in an attempt to change the social concept of “academic studies only”, so that the community can see that students can also obtain quality education resources through their specialties in other areas. But the results seem to have backfired. There is a very popular term on Chinese social media called inward scrolling. The best way to explain this word is to imagine that you are watching an opera in a theater, where every audience member is sitting in his or her seat to see the wonderful performance on stage, but suddenly the audience member in the first row stands up, so what would you do? There is no doubt that the audience in the back row would stand up in order to see the performance. This is involution, i.e. putting in more effort and still getting the same result, just as it is obvious that you can sit comfortably and watch the whole show, because of some people's ulterior motives, all of you end up paying more in the end. This seems to be a very common phenomenon in Chinese society, where the younger generation of Chinese youth are overwhelmed but forced to join in. According to the 2015 National Survey on Learning Stress among Elementary and Middle School Students, data shows that 26.4% of students spend 2 hours a day writing homework, 44.9% spend 3 hours, and 28.7% spend 4 hours. The average length of time spent on homework per student per day is three hours, equivalent to three times that of France, four times that of Japan, and six times that of Korea (Baidubaike contributors, 2019). Taking a child as a benchmark, going to school for 9 months a year, counting the time spent on homework during vacations totaling 300 days, 3 hours a day, for a total of 12 years, a cumulative total of more than 10,000 hours to be spent. The equivalent of 20 Chinese children will miss 4,032 star concerts due to homework, less 898.5 billion soccer games. The time spent on homework is “squeezed” out of students' sleep time, and they generally sleep less than 7 hours. Stay up until 23:00 to fall asleep students, elementary school accounted for 18.2%, middle school 46.3%, high school students accounted for nearly 90%. According to the survey report, the uneven distribution of educational resources may become the culprit of students staying up late to study. In the average homework hours ranked in the top ten cities, only Shanghai is the only one of them in the eastern developed cities, and the less developed areas of education, although the students study harder, but backward and hard work can not really solve the problem. Some policy rules of the points-based enrollment system have considered this issue. Some districts have included students' extracurricular activities and participation certificates in the assessment criteria. It has to be admitted that the Government's original intention is good. In a country where government policies are held up as the norm, the fact that the government has taken the lead in advocating this is of extraordinary significance. It seems that the government's attempts to synthesize the qualities of students and families have led to a reduction in the trend of “meritocracy” and the like. At the same time, such a policy gives students the opportunity to be well-rounded. Children with special talents who are mediocre in academic performance are noticed and valued, and their talents are accepted by the mainstream scoring mechanisms of society, which is to some extent another means of achieving equity in education. The introduction of these scoring mechanisms also extends the scope of high points from factors that are mainly influenced by the first economic conditions, such as the number of years of social security and the purchase of a house, to the perspective of the students' own talents, https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%9D%A1%E7%9C%A0%E4%B8%8D%E8%B6%B3/7128076?fromModule=lemma_inlink 21 providing additional opportunities for families with limited resources and alleviating the unequal distribution of educational resources. However, the results of implementation have not been satisfactory. Measures intended by the Government to reduce competition seem to be expanding a new battleground for parents who look to their children for education. It is a very simple wooden barrel principle. The amount of water a barrel holds does not depend on the highest plank on the wall, but on the shortest one on the wall. When there are differences in the academic levels of students, additional extracurricular activities may seem to be making up for the shortcomings that exist within the students themselves. However, in an internalized environment, the brutal competition does not leave any room for students to maneuver. Chinese parents are driven by the notion that “I have them when others don't, and I have better ones when others have them”, which means that students may be asked to participate in extracurricular activities in addition to their academic tasks to boost their points. Extracurricular activities require students to invest a lot of time in participation and preparation, which may directly affect their academic learning and rest time. As mentioned earlier, the current public education system in China is already relatively heavy in terms of study load, and adding extracurricular activities as a basis for points may further compress students' time outside of school. The starting position of the policy is good, but in the process of implementation the original intention has been distorted and turned into adding insult to injury. At the same time, in line with the principle of drawing on the strengths of all, the Government has included a number of extra-curricular activities in the assessment criteria, which has given rise to another aspect of unfairness. Participation in extra- 22 curricular activities implies not only an investment of time and energy, but also financial resources. Many quality extracurricular activities require payment of fees, such as music learning, sports clubs or training courses, which may not be affordable to economically disadvantaged families. All of the learning and training that students do requires space, equipment, and instructional fees, among other things, which are difficult for some families to afford. Sports such as equestrianism, skiing and golfing, on the other hand, are even denied to children from ordinary families and have become self-entertainment for the affluent class. The points system was originally designed to create fairer educational opportunities, but the points system for extracurricular activities could become a tool for class solidification, as evidenced by the 2011 Chinese Internet phrase of the year, “It is hard for a noble son to come from a poor family”, which was uttered from the bottom of a teacher's heart at the end of the midterm exams. A good education costs a lot of money, and the competition between parents starts in the womb. Students from high-income families gain more points through extracurricular activities to enter quality schools and further enhance their competitive edge. Students from low-income families are excluded from quality education due to insufficient points, making it difficult to break the class limit. This is a vicious cycle that is difficult to break. 23 4. Reasons for Problems a. Inconsistency of Resources between Regions The points-based enrollment system is intended to improve the status quo of social inequality and to guarantee the right of school-age children to receive education on an equal footing. However, the essential cause of the problem is the unevenness of resources between regions. According to the 2023 National Education Development Statistics Bulletin issued by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, there are a total of 498,300 schools of all levels and types in the country(Yao, 2023). There are 291 million students enrolled in all levels and types of academic education, and 18,917,800 full-time teachers. With such a large body of students, the number of students is almost equivalent to the national population of the United States. The most affected by the points-based enrollment system is the compulsory education stage, i.e., primary and junior high school. There are 143,500 general elementary school with 108 million students, 6,656,300 full-time teachers at the elementary school level, and a student- teacher ratio of 16.28:1; there are 52,300 junior high schools with 52,436,900 students, and 4,083,100 full-time teachers at the junior high school level, and a student-teacher ratio of 12.84:1. There is a huge gap between this student-teacher ratio and the United States. In 2019, the U.S. student-teacher ratio was 4.67:1 (McCain, 2023), meaning that in China, the same teachers need to take care of 3-4 times the number of students. Unlike the United States, Chinese parents hold public education in higher esteem. From the very beginning of its founding, China has made compulsory education policy one of the founding philosophies of the country. Public schools are far more numerous and 24 influential than private schools. The cost of educating a student in a public school is much lower than in a private school. Compulsory education in China covers the primary and middle school levels, and the main feature of public schools is that they are free of charge, with the cost of education paid for by the state. In many cities, high-quality school resources are limited, and although the points-based enrollment system attempts to solve the problem of “too many schools, not enough gruel,” its essence is still dependent on the allocation of local educational resources. Most of the funds invested in education come from local financial allocations, which are determined according to the financial income of the region, which means that educational resources cannot be distributed in a balanced manner. As mentioned earlier, different regions have different criteria and weights for setting points, which may also lead to inequality across regions. Each city has its own positioning, and for the sake of its own development, cities are also consciously introducing talents through policies that are clearly oriented. Shenzhen, as the fastest rising city in southern China, is supported by a large influx of laborers behind its rapid development. In 2022, the total population of Shenzhen will be 17.66 million, of which 11.82 million will be migrant workers(Statistical Yearbook, 2023). As Shenzhen is gradually becoming a globally renowned high-tech and innovation center, especially with its rapid development in the Internet, technology and finance sectors, Shenzhen's points- based admission policy has gradually tended to prioritize support for highly skilled people and practitioners in innovative industries. This change reflects Shenzhen's efforts to transform itself into an “innovative city,” where educational resources are not only targeted at traditional households, but are also beginning to attract and retain highly 25 skilled migrant labor. This has been reflected in policy support for high-income, high- skilled scientific and technological talent. For example, households with higher academic credentials and higher-paying occupations are able to earn more points, thereby improving access to quality schools. This government preference is not friendly to the low-income population. The majority of the population as a floating population into the city to work in the industry is not high income, and even this part of the population is the mainstream of the social group, and it is this part of the population in the face of children's enrollment in the school have more helplessness and dilemmas. Low income, low education and other factors mixed together, so that in the face of complex government policies, they often do not have the middle and high-income families rich family background and visionary foresight, often facing problems before trying to solve them, this invisible barriers make them in the competition for school enrollment in a naturally disadvantaged. Middle- and high-income families can easily obtain these degrees by virtue of their own social connections, wealth accumulation, etc., undoubtedly squeezing the living space of low- income families. For example, some cities require the purchase of a home in order to obtain high scores, and the high cost of urban vacation makes buying a home for low- income people is undoubtedly a pipe dream. The cumbersome and ambiguous points criteria are another point of criticism in the promotion of the points-based schooling system. The indicator system for points-based enrollment usually covers the number of years of residence, parents' social security contributions, tax payment records, housing conditions, and so on. The design of these indicators may be overly complex and lack transparency in some places, making it 26 difficult for parents to understand the rules or feel neglected. In Guangzhou, for example, one of the most important cities in southern China, there are 11 districts under the jurisdiction of the city, and the specific content and timetable of the points-based enrollment system varies from district to district. The district governments can decide on the details of the points system according to their own needs, but the general direction is still in accordance with the official documents of the central government. From this point of view, the regulations are adjusted to a greater or lesser extent every year in each district and are not released at the same time, which means that parents of school-age children cannot prepare in advance, and even though there are seldom-changing indicators such as social security period and parents' education, these indicators are also difficult to change in a short time, so these parents focus on the rules, which will change every year. These rules are usually posted on the official website of the Education Bureau, but the question is, how many people will log onto the official website to check the specific policy arrangements? The obscurity of the official language provides new barriers to the foreign population, even those with local domicile face such problems. People with low educational attainment have difficulties in using the Internet and reading official documents, and it is difficult for the government to “condescend” to explain these contents in layman's language, which, after all, appears to be not professional and official enough. As a result, there are cases every year in which people lose the battle for points- based enrollment because they do not understand the rules and arrangements. At present, most of the districts implementing the points-based admission policy have opted for merit-based admission, that is, admission is made from the high to the low points on the points list. This gives rise to another problem, that is, no one knows what 27 this year's admission score line is until the admission list is published. Naturally, the more the merrier becomes the guideline for parents - after all, the more points you have the more certainty you have of getting your child into a higher quality public school. According to the “Zhongshan Migrant Children's Compulsory Education Points Admission Management Measures” released on January 26, 2024, the total number of points is 800, setting a ceiling for the points value. This new initiative is in response to the re-emergence of the in-roll problem during implementation. When you don't know where the finish line is, the only way is to keep running. Young parents cannot see any specific benchmark in the marathon of points-based enrollment, so they have no choice but to keep accumulating points, and in previous years, there were even cases in which the number of points reached more than 1,000. This kind of behavior not only intensifies the pressure on students and parents, but is also entirely a negative publicity for the points-based admission policy, aggravating the panic of students and parents of the same age and further aggravating the pressure for admission. This unnecessary inward spiral is undoubtedly the result of an unclear policy. However, from the standpoint of the Government, it does have its own difficulties. With limited school places and limited education resources, meritocracy is the only fair option for hardworking children. However, if we want everyone to receive education and have equal access to education resources, we have a long way to go in view of the present situation. b. High Housing Prices China's education system has continued to evolve, with the educated class slowly expanding downward from slave masters, nobles, and rulers to the common people. 28 Reducing the solidification and contradiction between classes has always been one of the goals of China's educational development. Realizing complete equality is tantamount to utopia under the current economic and social conditions. Although the points-based enrollment indicators vary from city to city, stable residence, length of social security payment, and personal endowment (education, etc.) constitute important indicators among them (Industry Research, 2023). Despite this, all cities currently implementing points-based enrollment emphasize home ownership, which directly affects the housing market and urban land use. Being able to buy a house locally essentially qualifies one for direct access to public schools, but this seems to defeat the essential purpose of the points-based enrollment policy as proposed. The problem of school districts in China first arose in 1995, and the purpose of the policy was to equalize educational resources by prohibiting prestigious schools from enrolling students from non-surrounding areas, thus avoiding the situation where schools in remote areas could not recruit students while enrolling in prestigious schools. However, the resulting high property prices around school districts disguised family financial resources as an admission ticket to access quality education resources. This demand on the migrant population in terms of economic income constitutes a form of exclusion for the lower and middle class migrant population and groups with a weaker sense of belonging to the city. Through the practical research in Guangdong, Dongguan, Foshan and other places, it will also be found that the groups who can finally enter the local public schools through the points system enrollment policy basically belong to the middle class and the upper- middle class in the migrant population group(Industry Research, 2023). 29 But there is no doubt that both the points-based enrollment system and the school district housing issue have had a great impact on housing and land use in cities. The Chinese government proposed in 2016 that “houses are for living in, not for speculation”, and this policy has now become the guiding policy in the real estate sector. China's real estate has long been in a state of deformed development, and the bulk of investment or short-term investment (Lin, 2024). The direct impact of this policy is that a large number of real estate enterprises closed down, appearing Evergrande crisis3 and other real estate industry wealth mine problem. The purpose of the government's punch was to try to squeeze out the large number of bubbles that existed in China's real estate market, but the means were too aggressive, leading to the rapid bursting of the property bubble, triggering a surge in financial stagflation and a wave of closures of real estate firms, and plunging the region into the tragic situation of rotten buildings. China's housing market is currently facing the problem that the rich do not buy houses, the poor can not afford to buy houses. Crackdowns on speculation have led to a lack of revenue in this market, with houses not selling and investors reducing their investment in housing except for the immediate housing needs. Housing prices are in the doldrums, and real estate companies are used to the business model of building while selling, this sudden break in the capital chain is not a small blow to the real estate market. The emphasis on home ownership in the points-based enrollment system is undoubtedly stimulating immigrants to invest in real estate. A large number of immigrants with the need to buy homes are flooding into new cities, driving up demand for housing. At the same time, cities also need to constantly renovate and build 3 It is a liquidity issue arising from the debt problems of China Evergrande Group and its affiliates, and ultimately Evergrande defaulted on the debt due to insufficient liquidity to repay the debt, and is currently in the process of debt restructuring. 30 infrastructure because of the influx of new immigrants, so as to cope with the new urban conditions. c. Government Management of Migration and Talent Orientation From the perspective of city management, the ideal state of the government is to introduce different targeted policies to attract talents with specific needs in specific industries according to its own city orientation. But this is only the ideal situation. At present, many Chinese cities, especially those with a large number of immigrants, are in a state of renewal in terms of urban development and positioning. China's aging situation has reached a point where it is impossible to hide. The government is trying to introduce policies. To encourage the younger generation to have children, and educational resources have become a factor that young people must consider when making reproductive choices. The points-based enrollment system encourages professionals to settle in cities by rewarding these specific talents, and these young and middle-aged forces are the mainstay of childbearing at the right age. The development of China's cities has followed the development of its economy. In the last phase, China relied on its huge population base to develop labor-intensive industries, and the cities expanded and built supporting facilities accordingly. In Shenzhen, for example, the arrival of Foxconn changed the industrial layout and spatial planning of the city. The presence of such large companies has led to industrial agglomeration, while the demand for workers by large companies has led to population agglomeration. The current Foxconn plant in Longhua, Shenzhen, covers an area of 2.3 million square meters and employs about 150,000 people. The entry of companies has also accelerated the development and utilization of 31 surrounding land. Agricultural land and inefficient industrial land around Shenzhen has also realized re-planning, urban renewal projects continue to increase, while housing and education scale policies should also be supported by continuous updating. In recent years, with the adjustment of the city's positioning, many cities have their own “selfishness” on the integral enrollment policy. First of all, the city tries to attract specific talents to ensure its own competitiveness, which is not wrong. After all, in China, where the demographic dividend is gradually disappearing, industrial transformation is the way to go. China's competitiveness is diminishing compared to cheaper labor markets in Southeast Asia. But who are the beneficiaries of this policy adjustment? People with special skills and expertise are undoubtedly in the upper echelons of the immigrant community. For them, life is good wherever they are, their children have the opportunity to study wherever they are, and the choice they need to make is where they will be better off living and studying. Lower-middle class immigrants, on the other hand, have little choice but to go back home to study or to enroll in expensive private schools if the place of work does not offer their children the opportunity to study. This means that those who already have the right to choose have more choices because of the tilted policy. The points-based admission policy, which was initially intended to transfer more education resources downwards, not only fails to realize this original intention, but also adds a hundred pounds to a hundred pounds, discriminating against the low-income group at the very beginning. 32 5. My Views a. Positive The concept of urban governance has been introduced into China for only about twenty years. As a new theory with profound and rich connotations, governance theory emerged only in the late 20th century. Urban governance involves comprehensive considerations at multiple levels and latitudes, including the levels of political science, economics, planning, and public management. China's points-based enrollment system reflects how urban governance adapts to the challenges posed by rapid urbanization, mass migration, and the need for equitable access to educational resources. The Chinese government has declared both internally and externally that the country is in a period of transition, and that new things are created like the birth of a newborn baby, experiencing pains before the arrival of new hopes. The different points-based enrollment systems adopted by provinces and cities are in fact a new challenge to the traditional education model. From the perspective of resource allocation, the government's semi-compulsory implementation of a new education resource allocation policy through policy means can promote spatial equity in cities where competition for education resources is fierce. Although this policy has been criticized for not being fair enough, nothing is perfect at its inception, and the fact that 33 low-income immigrant groups have gone from having no choice to having the right to choose is already a great step forward. China's household registration system4 has always been an important step in managing the population. The development of the household registration system was adapted to the reality of China's huge population base and vast geographical area. With the reform and opening up of China, a large number of people have been moving around, making it necessary to make corresponding improvements to the household registration system. The Chinese government has vigorously promoted the application of residence permits for migrants in local cities5, and with the introduction of the points-based school enrollment policy, which is linked to the residence permit and the number of years of residency, the enthusiasm of migrants for applying for residence permits has been greatly increased. This change has made immigrants more closely connected to their place of residence and greatly facilitated the government's population governance. The emphasis on home ownership in the points-based enrollment system, on the other hand, has a direct impact on housing demand and the housing market. This is a windfall for China's real estate market, which has appeared weak. Urban planning is not only about physical space, but also about the “soft power” of the city. These “soft strengths” consist of human capital, science and technology innovation, etc., which will lead the city's future development. Cities that adopt 4 The household registration system of the People's Republic of China is a household-based population management system implemented by the Government of the People's Republic of China for its own citizens settled in mainland China, through which it is possible to ascertain the legitimacy of a natural person's actions such as living and working in a certain place. 5 The residence permit system refers to the system whereby some local governments in the People's Republic of China require non-local residents to apply for residence permits in order to enjoy local social welfare and other benefits and policies when they settle, work and live there on a long-term basis, while the local governments can use this system to compile statistics on and manage the foreign population. 34 preferential policies to attract and retain talent are doing themselves a favor and enhancing their competitiveness. In a period when China's demographic dividend is gradually disappearing, it is wise for cities to find a new position for themselves and master the future development direction by mastering talents. b. Negative The points-based admission policy has a history of more than 10 years since its introduction, and its shortcomings have been exposed in the course of practice. The most controversial point is that it is not fair enough. Critics argue that although the policy has made the enrollment targets transparent and public, the criteria for the targets are clearly set in a selective manner. The policy's emphasis on homeownership puts enormous financial pressure on migrants, who are not permanently settled in a particular place and, once relocated, have to conform to new policies in a new place. This lack of alignment between policies exacerbates the pressure on migrants' lives, and also reflects the fact that the government does not want migrants to move frequently, which creates problems for the government's population management. The discrimination against low-income and low-education groups is also evident. The value of some occupations, such as sanitation workers, is difficult to measure and indispensable. The value of migrants should not be judged solely on the basis of their education and occupation, and the children of low-income and low-education groups should also have equal access to education. The introduction of a wide variety of new standards puts new academic pressures on students. As mentioned earlier, in-scoring has become the dominant mode of competition 35 in Chinese society. The introduction of new standards puts students under additional academic pressure in addition to consolidating their own learning achievements, which is completely contrary to the original intent of the policy and even education. c. The Role of Urban Planner But the policy was originally proposed to change the status quo of insufficient equity. Planners must recognize that absolute fairness is impossible to achieve at any time and under any ideology. It is philosophically logical that equity is relative. The screening nature of this policy draws a line between long-term city residents and immigrants. Long-term residents complain that immigrants' children are competing for places that should be theirs, and immigrants lack a sense of belonging to the city because their children are not enrolled in school. The city should be an inclusive space, not related to economic income, not related to domicile, not related to social status, and its inhabitants should be integrated and live together in a common space. The introduction of the points-based enrolment system has led to a redistribution of educational resources. Remote school districts are also gaining new students, and the development and construction of nearby support facilities have to keep pace. Planners have to cope with the dual pressure of providing economic social housing and meeting the growing demand for infrastructure development. Schools, as a very important and essential part of the public facilities, are the key to sustainable urban development. The positioning of prestigious schools can even change parts of the city's landscape. Cities should reposition and reassess their educational resources for optimal allocation under this policy. The influx of immigrants enriches the 36 diversity of the city's population. Planners should avoid over-concentration of educational resources in rich and old urban areas, and instead accompany urban development strategies with new deployments of educational resources to achieve relative spatial educational equity in the region. China's points-based enrollment system is a powerful attempt at urban governance. It rejects the previous history of opaque school places and inequitable resources, and attempts to introduce socio-economic factors to allocate public services. Under this policy, the government has effectively managed migration and achieved redistribution of educational resources. But there is a risk of increasing social inequality and class segregation. Urban planners play a key role in this process. They play the role of coordinators, helping cities to reconsider how to accommodate immigrants, provide equal opportunities for immigrants, minimize the interference of other factors, and promote balanced urban development. 37 1. 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Voice of America; Voice of America Chinese. https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-eases-home-purchase- limits-in-major-cities-20240502/7595584.html Guo, L., Huang, J., & Zhang, Y. (2019). Education development in China: education return, quality, and equity. Sustainability, 11(13), 3750. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133750 https://www.huxiu.com/article/2365130.html https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-eases-home-purchase-limits-in-major-cities-20240502/7595584.html https://www.voachinese.com/a/china-eases-home-purchase-limits-in-major-cities-20240502/7595584.html 40 by CORNELL UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING ABSTRACT BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ACKNOWLEDGMENTS LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF TABLES 1.Literature Review 2.Background a.The History of Education System Development in Chi b.Introduction of the University Entrance Examinatio 3.Problem Illustration a.Current Situations b.Introduction of PES c.Problems of PES 4.Reasons for Problems a.Inconsistency of Resources between Regions b.High Housing Prices c.Government Management of Migration and Talent Orie 5.My Views a.Positive b.Negative c.The Role of Urban Planner 1.BIBLIOGRAPHY