All high schools, primary schools and kindergartens in Beijing are expected to open up fully to foreigners, according to the Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
Under a new policy that is awaiting authorization from the Beijing municipal government, all foreign children whose parents live or work in Beijing on a long-term basis will be allowed to attend any school in Beijing.
Commission sources declined to reveal the details of the policy -- such as the fees to be paid by foreign students and how they will be treated after graduation -- because the final say of the municipal government is still awaited.
The commission emphasized that, although all Beijing-based schools will be able to enrol foreign students whose parents live or work in Beijing, only 25 schools, including Huiwen High School, Fangcaodi Primary School and Beijing No 4 High School, will be able to recruit students living abroad.
Foreign students at Beijing-based schools are exempt from some subjects that are mandatory for their Chinese counterparts -- for example, politics.
Those foreign students who pass the final examinations will receive graduation certificates like their Chinese classmates, sources said.
Currently, foreign students can only attend schools set up by foreign individuals or organizations or diplomatic missions.
Only 40 schools in Beijing are now open to foreign students. Nearly 5,000 foreign pupils are now studying in Beijing, up from 3,000 in 2001, according to commission sources.
The Shunyi International School has 1,800 foreign students, the most of any school in Beijing, but it made no comment on the forthcoming new policy.
Zhu Hongbing, director of the educational administration department of Fangcaodi Primary School's International Student Section, said: "I think the new policy will definitely have a positive impact on education for foreign students in my school."
With a history of 30 years, Fangcaodi Primary School was the first school in Beijing to admit foreign students.
The tuition fees for foreign students at the school are five to six times what their Chinese schoolmates have to pay, according to Zhu.
The official said he thinks the new policy will make life more convenient for foreign students as they will be able to go to the school closest to their home.
(China Daily February 26, 2003)
