School battles

At the public kindergartens, the battle for next year's entrance started earlier this year. At some popular ones, enrollment days see huge crowds that leave parents gasping for air as they press forward to scribble their names down. It looks like a crowd of fans waiting for a pop star, not parents looking for a place for their kids.

A boy cries at a migrant worker kindergarten in Xiaojing village of Fengtai district, Beijing, on June 30. It is the last day of kindergarten for him because village authorities planned to close it down. Photo: CFP

At 4 pm, in front of the Blue Sky Kindergarten, considered one of the best in Beijing and connected to the air force, a kind of auto show was going on. Luxury cars lined up in front of the gate and even packed in neighborhood hutongs to pick up their children.

"Every day is like this, the cars block our way and it's very annoying," said a local residence surnamed Zhang. He said most of the cars look super expensive, so "the children in the kindergarten must come from very rich families."

The Blue Sky is famous because many senior officials send their children or grandchildren to this kindergarten, and it is frequently visited by high officials. The kindergarten's children get high priority in competitions to perform at the Chinese New Year Gala on TV, which nearly 70 percent of the population watch.

"Many problems in China were caused by social inequality. The limited resources are controlled by the rich people or powerful groups, and the redistribution of wealth is not fair in society," said Li Shi, director of the Income Distribution and Poverty Research Center at the Beijing Normal University.

"The gap between the rich and the poor is so huge that the poor don't have the same access to education and many other public services as the rich people. The lack of good education will enlarge the gap and cause social instability."