China
In February 2006, the government pledged to provide completely free nine-year education, including textbooks and fees. Annual education investment went from less than US$50 billion in 2003 to more than US$250 billion in 2011. However, there remains an inequality in education spending. In 2010, the annual education expenditure per secondary school student in Beijing totalled ¥20,023, while in Guizhou, one of the poorest provinces in China, only totalled ¥3,204. Free compulsory education in China consists of primary school and junior secondary school between the ages of 6 and 15. In 2011, around 81.4% of Chinese have received secondary education. By 2007, there were 396,567 primary schools, 94,116 secondary schools, and 2,236 higher education institutions in China.
Migrant education
The primary form of migration within China isn't that of rural-rural farming migration, but that of rural-urban migration. Through the hukou system, a form of citizenship registration, the Chinese government divides citizens into one of two categories of: urban or rural. Historically, this has created a hierarchy between urban and rural citizens because strict regulations give urbanites more access to healthcare, education, food, etc. Migration has led to a changing demographic of cities. According to the 2010 Census, 210 million urban-to-rural migrants are living in cities, without official hukou registration. Of these migrants, about 20 million are children between the ages of 6 and 14 years struggling to receive quality education because they are not registered within the school district. Many local governments require that everyone complete at least 9 years of education; however, migrant children weren't allowed to enroll in urban schools until 1996. The Ministry of Education issued "Provisional Measures for the Education of Migrant Children" in 1998, but because this was not actually legally binding, many factors continue to prohibit migrants from receiving education:For rural migrant children who do succeed in enrolling in state schools, discrimination is prevalent: in most schools, migrant children do not receive official grades and can not receive academic honors. Because of this, many parents choose to send their children to unlicensed, privately run migrant-specific ("black") schools. The quality of education in these schools is poor because they lack the same resources as state schools—specifically qualified teachers. Depending on the region, these "black" schools are also under threat of closure. In 2007 in Shanghai, every unlicensed migrant school in the center of the city was closed. However, schools on the outskirts of the city and in the majority migrant Xiamen Special Economic Zone, 34 unlicensed schools were allowed.