Bloomberg BusinessWeek, June 12, 2017 (I)

choi

(1) Dexter Roberts, School Choice, Beijing Edition.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/a ... ijing-public-school

Quote:

"a child must be at least 6 on Sept 1 to enter first grade

About two Beijing parents DING Zhe and Tina QI: "They're closely monitoring popular educational websites such as Beijing Children Rise to Primary [北京幼升小网 [www.ysxiao.cn] for news of any last-minute changes in enrollment policy. * * * Qi, who got her master's at the University of Southampton [1862- ; public; at City of Southampton, County of Hampshire] in the UK before returning to Beijing, her hometown.

In China: "A hundred million or so children are enrolled in elementary school, with 17 million entering each year. (Primary education runs for six years, followed by three years each of middle and high school.) China has 190,000 elementary schools, but the majority just won't do for urbanites ambitious for their kids' future. * * * Of Beijing’s 984 elementary schools, only a couple of dozen fall into this category, including Zhong Guan Cun No 3 Elementary School 中关村第三小学 and Experimental Primary School of Beijing Normal University 北京师范大学实验小学 [1958- ]. Most were once zhongdian xuexiao, or key institutes—a designation that dates to the Mao era and refers to institutions tasked with educating the children of the Communist Party elite. These schools have traditionally drawn the lion's share of financial resources as well as the best teachers.  They're the equivalent of 'feeder' schools in the US. * * * In Beijing almost all the most sought-after schools are located in just three of the city's 16 districts—Haidian, Xicheng, and Dongcheng—home to government ministries, universities, and research institutes.

"Educational authorities several years ago ordered public schools to stop using academic proficiency tests in the admissions process. Meanwhile, President Xi Jinping's antigraft campaign has diminished the appeal of backdoor channels, including bribery. That leaves only one main criterion for admission: location.  In Beijing, where parents must own property near competitive schools if they wish their children to attend (renting isn't enough), demand for what are known as xuequfang, or 'school district houses'—often small, overpriced, and sometimes rundown apartments in desirable districts—has surged.

"The Deloitte auditor, Qi, doesn't expect the recent changes to affect her son's prospects of getting into Shijia Hutong [东城区 史家胡同 小学], a top school, but a colleague with a 3-year-old child, who, like her, bought a xuequfang, may not be as fortunate.  * * * 'We live in a world of never-ending policy change,' says Qi. 'What direction they will take after a number of years is impossible to know.'

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: Parents pay top prices for shabby apartment in the right district

(b)
(i) "Xiong Bingqi, vice president for the 21st Century Education Research Institute"  21世纪教育研究院 [located in Beijing] 副院长 熊丙奇 [and 上海交通大学教授]
(ii) "Fangcaodi Primary school 芳草地小学 in Chaoyang, a district that’s home to embassies and foreign company offices"
(iii) "One couple spent 5.3 million yuan ($779,000) on a tiny 11-square-meter room near Beijing No 2 Experimental Primary 北京第二实验小学, considered one of the city’s best schools, making it 'the most expensive school district house ever sold in China,' Xinhua News Agency reported in March of last year."
(iv) "Mikko Lan, a vice president at Ogilvy Public Relations in Beijing, says * * * his son was admitted in 2012 to the prestigious Hongmaio Primary"  奥美公关  蓝智勇  红庙小学

Mikko
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikko
("a Finnish masculine given name and equivalent of the English name Michael, having been borrowed into the Finnish language")