Around 9.15 million students have taken China's national college entrance examination, or gaokao, this year. This number has decreased by 1.4 million compared with 10.5 million in 2008. In Shanghai, only 55,000 students took the exam this year, and around 49,000 of them will be enrolled. So it is no longer such a fierce competition in Shanghai.

However, 12 provinces, half of which are in the west of China, witnessed an obvious increase of numbers of gaokao participants this year, making the exam more competitive in those regions.

This is the real picture of today's gaokao. It is much easier than before for high school graduates to enter college in developed provinces in the east, while it is harder for their counterparts in the less-developed west.

Far fewer students from the poor west can afford to study abroad than the east. And many children studying and living in big cities with their migrant worker parents have to go back to their hometowns to take the national college entrance exam, because their hukou - residence registration - remains in their hometowns.

So the national education authorities should not only increase their input in the west to improve the quality of education there, but also increase college enrollment in the west to make it easier for students to enjoy higher education.

Last year, Peking University enrolled fewer than one student among every 10,000 from Henan, Shandong and Hubei provinces. But this figure was 32.6 in Beijing. And the chance for students with Shanghai hukou to go to the city's Fudan University is 53 times higher than that of national average.

The hukou is a man-made barrier preventing students from receiving education and taking the gaokao in places out of their hometown.

Since the gaokao is one of the most important means to select qualified students for colleges, the authorities should try their best to make it a fair game for all.

It is good news that Beijing, Fujian province and Shandong province have already piloted permitting students without local hukou to take local exams. And the Ministry of Education also indicated clearly that other provinces are expected to make their plans for this action.

We are looking forward to more breakthroughs in this field.

(People's Daily)