Chinese City Gives Kids With Rich Parents Bonus Points on Their High School Admissions Exam

In many Chinese cities and provinces, special treatment is given to some students who meet certain standards like winning sports competitions, being a good samaritan or even just being the child of a foreign diplomat.

This preferential treatment can sometimes be priority admissions or even bonus points on the zhongkao, China’s high school entrance exam.

But one city in particular has caused outrage by rewarding some children a critical boost into getting into a good high school just for having really rich parents, according to Shanghaiist.

Here are the bonus point requirements as they stand now for various cities and provinces in China:

Beijing — Children of foreign diplomats receive preferential admission.

Tianjin — Children of higher-level foreign students get 5 extra points.

Hohhot — Children of parents who worked as street cleaners for 10 years get 4 extra points.

Changchun — Students studying Japanese or Russian are given lower admission requirements by 5 points.

Wuhan — Winners of science competitions get 5 extra points.

Chengdu — Student athletes who’ve place 3rd or above in specified individual and team competition or national second-level athletes get 5 to 10 extra points.

Kunming — National second-level athletes, good samaritans or children of good samaritans may receive between 5 and 20 extra points.

But the most controversial preferential treatment is given in the city of Yinchuan where the children of entrepreneurs who have at least 5 Million RMB, or over $750,000, in investments within Yinchuan receive a lower admissions handicap by one grade, equivalent to a 10 point increase.

Unsurprisingly, many parents have since criticized the method for placing the importance of the parent’s financial assets ahead of their children’s actual academic capability in a system where even a few bonus points can put a child ahead of hundreds on a county-wide scale.

In the past, parents and students have attempted to cheat the system by purchasing national-level athlete certificates, posing as ethnic minorities or even just buying land for their children to ultimately help their university admissions chances.

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