Migration for school choice: urbanisation and rural social stratification in China

The peidu trend has become prevalent in rural China in the last decade, with many rural children seen studying in urban schools accompanied by their adult family members in county capitals. Essentially, peidu is a practice of migration for school choice. However, unlike in the international context, this school choice phenomenon in rural China is not driven by marketisation reform, but by a strategy of the local government to achieve urbanisation. Based on questionnaires and interviews, this study reveals that peidu is stratified by family socioeconomic status. As the rural middle and top strata migrate out of the countryside by choosing urban schools for their children, rural schools further deteriorate and children of the most disadvantaged families are left behind in deeper struggles. Similar to school choice effects in other countries, peidu reinforces the rural-urban educational disparities and calls into question the urbanisation strategy in China.