China Ensures Equal School Access for Migrant Children

China is rolling out sweeping measures to guarantee equal access to schooling for the children of migrant workers, marking a significant step toward dismantling the education barriers long tied to the country’s household registration (hukou) system. The initiative, anchored in a landmark State Council policy issued in May 2026, aims to ensure that the more than 13 million migrant children in compulsory education can attend public schools in the cities where their families live and work.

A National Policy Breakthrough

In May 2026, the State Council issued the Opinions on Providing Basic Public Services Based on Place of Habitual Residence, the first national-level document dedicated to delinking basic public services from the hukou system. According to People’s Daily, the policy explicitly aims to “promote equal access to basic public services for unregistered permanent residents and registered residents,” covering education, housing, healthcare, and social security.

The policy framework builds on years of incremental reform. The Ministry of Education’s “Sunshine Enrollment Special Action (2026),” issued in April, requires full implementation of the “two priorities, two inclusions” framework — prioritizing enrollment by local governments and public schools, and including migrant children in local education development plans and fiscal guarantees. As China News Network reported, the directive encourages conditional areas to allow enrollment based solely on residence permits, eliminating the need for additional documentation.

Zhejiang Leads the Way

Zhejiang Province has emerged as a national model, achieving 100% provision of compulsory education public school placements for migrant children holding residence permits. In 2025 alone, public schools across Zhejiang enrolled approximately 132,000 migrant children with residence permits, according to CCTV News.

A striking example of this progress can be found in Hangzhou’s Xiaoshan District. By the end of 2025, the district had eliminated all 20-plus dedicated migrant children schools, transitioning every migrant child into standard public schools. Ge Jun, Head of the Basic Education Section of Xiaoshan District Education Bureau, told CCTV: “The education guarantee for migrant children is also a matter of education equity. By the end of 2025, all 20-plus migrant children schools in Xiaoshan District were eliminated, allowing all migrant children to attend public schools within the district.”

For families like Zheng Licai and Wang Lin, migrant workers from Yibin, Sichuan who have been living in Xiaoshan for years, the policy has been life-changing. “Both children have been studying here since kindergarten, they were also born here,” the couple told CCTV. “At first we prepared everything at home, ready to go back for school — making plans, preparing to separate. It was heartbreaking. Then we saw this policy and immediately acted on it.”

From ‘Having a School’ to ‘Attending a Good School’

While access has improved dramatically — the proportion of migrant children enrolled in public or government-subsidized schools has exceeded 97%, up 11.2 percentage points from the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period — experts caution that significant challenges remain.

Wu Ni, Director of the Institute for Educational Strategy and Macro Policy at the China National Academy of Educational Sciences, identified three deep-seated problems in an interview with Cover News: “unbalanced supply of school places, barriers in the path to higher education, and gaps in quality integration.”

Migrant children still face significant hurdles in taking high school and college entrance exams (zhongkao and gaokao) outside their hukou registration location, particularly in megacities like Beijing and Shanghai. Quality integration also remains a concern, as migrant parents often work long hours, limiting their ability to support their children’s education.

Innovation in the Classroom

Schools are experimenting with new approaches to bridge these gaps. At Hongken School in Xiaoshan, where over 60% of students are migrant children, Principal Jiang Guojian described how teachers have developed school-based homework and customized follow-up tutoring. “We use AI empowerment to help students better integrate into the classroom,” he told CCTV, noting that the school recently introduced artificial intelligence teaching tools to help students from diverse educational backgrounds catch up.

Broader Economic Implications

The education reform is part of a larger strategy to accelerate urbanization and boost domestic demand. As People’s Daily commentator Li Zheng wrote: “Wherever does a better job of investing in people and becomes a highland of quality public services, that place can attract continuous talent inflow, thereby maintaining development vitality.”

With China’s urban permanent resident population at 67% but its urban hukou population at only about 50%, approximately 250 million agricultural transfer workers and their families stand to benefit from these reforms. According to People’s Daily, each percentage point increase in the urbanization rate can drive approximately 1 trillion yuan in new investment demand and over 200 billion yuan in new consumption demand.

What’s Next

The Ministry of Education has pledged to continue expanding access. You Sen, Deputy Director of the Basic Education Department, stated that the ministry “will strive to ensure that all school-age children, including migrant children of urban workers, can enjoy more equitable and higher-quality compulsory education.”

Looking ahead, more provinces are expected to follow Zhejiang’s model. The State Council’s new policy also encourages relaxing restrictions on taking the zhongkao in the place of residence, potentially opening pathways to higher education for millions of students. The success of these reforms will be critical to China’s goal of building a “strong education nation” by 2035 and sustaining the country’s long-term urbanization and economic development.