After a two-year transition, Shaanxi fully cancels cross-city enrollment for regular high schools.

　　According to a May 15 message on the website of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education, the "Notice of the Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education on Doing a Good Job in the 2024 Regular High School Enrollment Work" makes clear that the requirements of the Ministry of Education on adhering to localized enrollment and simultaneous enrollment of public and private schools must be strictly implemented. Regular high schools located in counties (and cities not divided into districts) should enroll students within their own county; regular high schools located in the urban areas of cities divided into districts should enroll students within their district or several urban districts, and in principle may not enroll students in counties, with the specific enrollment scope determined by the municipal-level education administrative department. Where the districts and counties under a jurisdiction have insufficient school places or insufficient student sources, the municipal-level education administrative department may coordinate and adjust within the jurisdiction, admitting students according to the same method and standards.

　　The notice requires a full cancellation of cross-city enrollment. The Shaanxi Air Force and Navy Youth Aviation Schools, which undertake the country's special talent training tasks, will continue to enroll students according to the original plan; in accordance with the prescribed enrollment scope, enrollment quotas within the city are allocated to fully realize localized enrollment. For cities with a relatively high proportion of cross-regional enrollment within the city in 2023, a relatively large number of students, and slow progress in reduction, they must clarify a "timetable," draw a "road map," work backward from time nodes, conduct operations with charts posted, and accelerate the reform task of localized enrollment.

　　The Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education also stated that it will conduct spot checks using the "four noes and two straights" method. For schools found to have violated regulations by enrolling students across cities or across regions within a city, depending on the circumstances, they will be notified, and their titles of provincial-level demonstration school and provincial-level standardized school will be revoked; within two years after revocation, they may not apply for creation evaluation. Competent departments with weak supervision, dereliction of duty, or failure to fulfill responsibilities will be held accountable accordingly, and where circumstances are especially serious, the matter will be transferred to the discipline inspection and supervision department for investigation and handling according to the cadre affiliation relationship.

　　The notice also mentioned that cities that have a need for cross-regional enrollment within the city should, in principle, scientifically and reasonably allocate the intra-city cross-regional enrollment plan to a number of junior high schools, effectively preventing "cream-skimming" enrollment. The relevant work plans should be submitted to the Provincial Department of Education before May 27, 2024 (Monday), and may be implemented only after approval by the Provincial Department of Education; any without approval shall be deemed illegal enrollment.

　　The Paper noted that two years earlier, on May 6, 2022, the "Notice of the Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education on Doing a Good Job in the 2022 Regular High School Enrollment Work" had already proposed strictly regulating cross-regional enrollment: the number of cross-regional enrollment plans in all localities in 2022 must be lower than 50% of that in 2020, and by 2024 cross-regional enrollment must be completely canceled. The education bureaus of the cities (districts, counties) where cross-regional enrollment schools are located must consult in advance with the education bureaus of the places of student origin on matters such as enrollment plans, conditions, procedures, and student status transfer, and make them public.

　　At that time, Li Hong, vice chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Education Examination and Evaluation Research Association and principal of the Olympic Garden School of Shaanxi Normal University, said in an interview with the "Teachers' Daily" that some high schools had long engaged in illegal "cream-skimming" enrollment, seriously damaging the ecology of basic education. In response to this abnormal phenomenon, the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education clearly proposed in the notice that "the number of cross-regional enrollment plans in all localities in 2022 must be lower than 50% of that in 2020," and more resolutely proposed that "by 2024 cross-regional enrollment must be completely canceled," which is a concretization of the national policy on "localized enrollment" for regular high schools. In December 2021, the Ministry of Education and eight other departments issued the "Action Plan for the Development and Improvement of County-level Regular High Schools During the 14th Five-Year Plan Period," proposing to "reverse the phenomenon of loss of student sources in county high schools by 2025." Based on this analysis, this policy provision is a requirement of "county high school revitalization" and should also be closely and intrinsically related to advancing the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy.

　　Here, the concept of "region" needs to be correctly understood. The enrollment "region" is delineated by each city's education bureau according to the level of basic education development in the city. One or more administrative districts constitute one enrollment "region." "Canceling cross-regional enrollment" is not "canceling cross-administrative-district enrollment." For example, Xi'an has always treated the "six urban districts" as one enrollment region, while other districts and counties each constitute an independent enrollment region. That is to say, regular high schools in the "six urban districts" may enroll students only in the "six urban districts" and may not enroll middle school examination candidates from other cities and other districts and counties of the same city. Special curriculum classes suspected of cross-regional "cream-skimming" enrollment that some high schools have long established may be suspended. This is "good news" for the regular high schools and county high schools that account for an absolute proportion and have long been at a developmental disadvantage.

　　According to a report by the "Chinese Business Daily," Shaanxi's full cancellation of cross-regional enrollment is divided into two steps. This year's "full cancellation of cross-city" enrollment achieved the first step, and this "city" refers to the city in the administrative division; the second step is "canceling intra-city cross-regional enrollment." As mentioned in the "Notice of the Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education on Doing a Good Job in the 2024 Regular High School Enrollment Work," "intra-city cross-regional enrollment" needs to be filed with the Provincial Department of Education, clearly stating not only this year's enrollment plan but also which school the plan is allocated to, and at the same time filing the plans for next year and the year after together.

　　The report stated that the complete cancellation of "intra-city cross-regional enrollment" must have a detailed timetable, and the key to the problem actually lies in the weak teaching quality of some county high schools. Only by truly improving the teaching quality of these county high schools and regaining the trust of local students and parents can the problem be fundamentally solved. This requires not only the assistance of education departments at all levels but also the financial investment of local government departments to complete jointly. A responsible person of the Provincial Department of Education said that the "Notice of the Office of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education on Doing a Good Job in the 2024 Regular High School Enrollment Work" can be seen as a continuous advancement of the requirements for fully realizing localized enrollment and simultaneous enrollment of public and private schools, aimed at promoting the high-quality development of basic education in Shaanxi.