The reform of gaokao rules for nonresident children should be implemented at once, and I believe that in the near future, at least within the next five years, all children will be able to take the exam in any metropolis.

The debate involves policies proposed by Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong province.

The capital doesn't offer a proper solution. It didn't even mention the gaokao or universities, and said it would only allow children without hukou to attend vocational schools. Shanghai's is a little better, but it's still a failed policy. Guangdong gets a "pass".

The solution to the problem is to use the same standards to recruit students. No matter where students attend school, they should have the same opportunities to get into a good college.

Fundamentally, authorities need to look at improving the quality of universities. If Shandong province had a Peking or Tsinghua, would students still fight for places at schools in Beijing?

Zhang Qianfan, 49, is a law professor at Peking University.

My daughter was born in Shanxi province. She came to the capital when she was 8, and attended primary and middle school here.

Because of the hukou restriction, she was refused by a few key middle schools. She was deeply hurt, and I don't want her to be hurt again.

I sent her to an international school and have prepared her to study abroad in the future.

We visited high schools in Shanxi before her high school entrance exam, but the teaching plans between Beijing and Shanxi are very different. Because my daughter has spent all her school life in Beijing, I'm worried she will have difficulty catching up with the subjects.

It's important for children to grow up with their parents. Under the current policy, nonresident children in major cities have to be separated from their parents to attend high school and prepare for the gaokao.

Zhou Yanping, 42, a Shanxi native and mother of a 15-year-old girl, lives in Beijing.

(China Daily 01/24/2013 page7)