The power of positional competition and market mechanism: an empirical study of parental choice of junior middle school in Nanning, P.R. China

Abstract

School choice has been actively exercised by mostly middle class parents and ‘key’ schools in many places in China, each obtaining what they want: school places and funds, respectively. The aims of this study were to explore the impact of positional competition in school choice and explore the effect of market mechanisms in the resulting school choice process. There has been little empirical research into school choice in China and this represents a first step. A descriptive survey was distributed to 224 parents from one ‘key’ school and 206 of whom returned the form. Follow‐up interviews with eight parents and the headteacher of the sample school were conducted. The 68% of the school choice participants were professionals and public servants; the income of 69% of the participants is above or well above the average income of the locals; 61% of the participants indicated they had or were expected to spend over ¥30,000 for their child’s three‐year study; 79% of the participants had spent ¥3000–15,000 for their child’s after‐school activities. The results of the study suggest that the most active participants of school choice are the middle class parents and the key schools. The substantial amount of choice fee has either created a financial burden on those working class families or effectively closed the door of school choice to them.

Keywords:

• school choice
• positional competition
• market mechanism
• educational inequality

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Hugh Lauder of the University of Bath, UK, for his valuable comments on the improvement of the previous drafts of this paper. I am also grateful for the constructive comments and suggestions from Don Barnes, visiting professor at Guangxi University, and Karen Barnes, Ph.D., Foreign Expert in English, Guangxi University.

Notes

1. Guanxi refers to the ‘set of personal connections which an individual may draw upon to secure resources or advantage when doing business or in the course of social life’ (Davies et al. 2003, 42). The relationships formed by guanxi are personal and not transferable.

2. Hukou refers to registered permanent residency (household registration) issued in Chinese mainland. A household registration record officially identifies a person as a resident of an area. It can also refer to a family register in many contexts since the household registration record is issued per family, and usually includes the births, deaths, marriages, divorces and moves, of all members in the family.

3. ‘Memo students’ refers to those students who obtain school places by means of a memo written by people in powerful or influential positions to the head of a school or local education authority.

4. ‘Connection students’ refers to those students who obtain school places by means of guanxi.