School Choice, Beijing Edition

Parents pay top prices for shabby apartments in the right districts. 

“We had to sell our bigger place and crowd into this small one”

- Dexter Roberts

On an afternoon in late May, two Beijing parents, each with a 6-year old son, are plotting out strategies at an upscale teahouse in the Chinese capital. Ding Zhe, 37, works as a manager at a state-owned machine tool and pharmaceutical conglomerate; Tina Qi, 41, is an auditor at Deloitte. The two are trading tips on a stressful rite for China’s new elite: getting one’s kids into one of the country’s ultra competitive public primary schools.

Ding and Qi each assembled documents for the initial online application, including copies of their sons’ birth certificates (a child must be at least 6 on 1 September to enter first grade), the family household residency permit, and crucially, a certificate of title showing they own an apartment in their desired school districts. They’re closely monitoring popular educational websites such as Beijing Children Rise to Primary for news of any last- minute changes in enrollment policy. And they have exchanged WeChat articles with advice on how to prepare for the dreaded family interview—which is an often unannounced home visit by teachers or education officials. That, and a separate on-campus interview for wannabe students, will occur just before decisions are made in late June.

“The competition is intense,” says Ding, who moved to Beijing from southwestern China in 2000 for university and stayed for work. “Our resources are limited, and the population is too large,” frets Qi, who got her master’s at the University of Southampton in the UK before returning to Beijing, her hometown.