My family’s journey through China’s changing educational landscape

As Beijing’s annual kindergarten and primary school enrolment season wrapped up in the summer, the mix of joy and disappointment among families was palpable. It brought to mind the dramatic evolution of China’s education system, as experienced by myself and my children.

I was born in rural China in the 1980s and education was always going to be my escape route. “Knowledge is power” was not a cliché; it was a creed my parents, though farmers, held dear. Their sacrifices, coupled with my own diligence, propelled me from a village school to a prestigious university education, ultimately leading to a fulfilling career and a transformed life.

Now a parent myself, I still have a front-row view of China’s educational landscape. My daughter, born in 2014, entered a system grappling with a population boom in Beijing – a battleground for the kind of intense, often pointless competition we now call “involution”.

Securing a kindergarten spot was an ordeal, a series of queues and interviews. Primary school admissions were even more cutthroat. Like many parents, I sold our apartment in Beijing’s Chaoyang district and relocated to the coveted Xicheng district, lured by the promise of superior educational resources.

This puzzled my father back in our hometown. During our video calls, he’d often grumble, “We sold the whole family’s pigs to pay for your tuition back then, and now you’re selling an apartment for our granddaughter’s schooling?”

When I explained how apartments in Xicheng were almost 50,000 yuan (US$7,000) more expensive per square metre than those in Chaoyang, but the top school district had a nearly 20 per cent higher rate of students getting into top-tier universities, his eyes filled with confusion. “Back in our day, there was only one key high school in the entire county. Now, Beijingers are picking and choosing?”