The Household Registration System, Education System, and Inequalities in Education for Migrant Children

Abstract

In mainland China, the hukou (household registration) system and the education system bound to it are two institutional sources that cause educational inequality for the children of migrant populations. By means of analyses of these institutions, this article posits that although the present hukou system has yet to be relaxed, reforms of the education system have to a certain extent alleviated the educational inequalities for the children of migrant populations, although many problems still exist. Based on a 2006 survey of 1 percent of the migrant population in Beijing, this study finds that enrollments of the children of migrants have substantially increased and inequality in terms of the starting point of education has declined in the elementary school phase due to reforms of the educational system, but the enrollment age has lagged and children are unable to obtain school education when they reach school age. The enrollment rate is still low in the junior secondary school stage, and the starting point of education is gravely unequal. In the senior secondary school stage, rigidity of the hukou and college entrance exam systems makes it very difficult for migrant children to obtain an education in the localities to which they have migrated.