The choice of school is understood here as the action of families to select an appropriate school for their child. This choice implies a freedom and a right that families exercise in complete autonomy. In education policies, this problem is approached in opposite ways: on the one hand, it is a matter of allowing or even encouraging this choice, on the other hand of prohibiting it or limiting it, as was done by the school card. The latter divides administratively and imposes the admission of students to a specific establishment, leaving families very little room for action. In China as in France, even if there are still some possibilities for choice of establishment by families, this question has become a subject of lively debate in connection with several facets of education: democracy,

2His treatment is not uniform. In the United States, England and Japan, for example, the choice of establishment is rather considered by the State as a positive factor. It would lead to the improvement of the quality and effectiveness of education thanks to competition between establishments, to the pressures that families exert on them. But in China, this is not at all the case… This question arouses sustained interest on the part of various partners who see it rather as a social phenomenon that goes without saying but produces inequalities, especially in the imposed framework of the school map. . This phenomenon and its supposedly negative effects are so strong that they become a dilemma for the state in the face of the dream of equity in education. How did this choice of establishment become an object of contention? What are its characteristics ? What orientations are at stake in the relevant Chinese education policies? In the context of the current educational reform for the personal development of the child, how could this aspiration be taken into consideration?

Elite Education Policies: Pilot Institutions and Institutional Choice

From Education for the People to Education for the Elite: Educational Regulation in New China and Pilot Institutions

3The early years of New China, from its founding in 1949 until the mid-1950s, were marked by a major shift in educational policy direction: the shift from education for the people to education for the ‘elite. When it was created, the new state continued to implement the school model of the first liberated areas, which was characterized by:

Emphasis on the principle of equality of education. The School had to open the door to the people. At the first national meeting on education in 1949, education in the new China was defined as national, scientific and popular… Its purpose is to ser

5Although this system in favor of pilot schools was denounced during the Cultural Revolution of 1966, the elite approach then again became the framework of educational policy in China and experienced, after economic reform and the opening up of the country, a development linked to its recognition. In 1978, to meet market-tested talent needs, the MENC promulgated a “Test Project for the Onward Tracking of a Number of Pilot Schools” which determined their objectives, admission requirements and established a list of twenty pilot establishments (primary and secondary) subordinated to the ministries. In 1980, a Ministerial Decision confirmed the development of groups of pilot primary and secondary establishments. It affirmed the development of these establishments as a major strategy and specified the size criteria, the methods of financing, the investment program for their construction. In 1983, the MENC again confirmed, in the text “Some Suggestions for Improving the Quality of General Secondary Schools”, the need to increase the number of pilot schools. Thus, with these strong political and institutional supports, the pilot schools made a rapid leap and had a dazzling development at the four levels of the Chinese education system: that of the ministries, that of the provinces, that of the cities or that of the districts. in the text “Some suggestions on improving the quality of general secondary schools”, the need to multiply pilot schools. Thus, with these strong political and institutional supports, the pilot schools made a rapid leap and had a dazzling development at the four levels of the Chinese education system: that of the ministries, that of the provinces, that of the cities or that of the districts. in the text “Some suggestions on improving the quality of general secondary schools”, the need to multiply pilot schools. Thus, with these strong political and institutional supports, the pilot schools made a rapid leap and had a dazzling development at the four levels of the Chinese education system: that of the miistries, that of the provinces, that of the cities or that of the districts.

The metamorphosis of the system: pilot establishments, legitimization of the imbalance between establishments and appearance of the choice of establishment

6Faced with the serious shortage of its educational resources, China has chosen to favor the training of an elite and has given priority to the development of higher education by the creation of pilot establishments. This political approach by the elite involved an unbalanced development of education and even legitima. On the one hand, the pilot establishments obtained priority support from the government and the means necessary for their proper functioning in all areas: material equipment, teaching staff and financial resources.