The government of Guangdong Province has released a new educational policy allowing over nine-thousand migrant students to take Gaokao in the province. CCTV's reporter goes to Guangzhou to give us more details on this new policy.

Lin Xiaofan moved to Guangzhou from Fujian Province when he was 8 years old. Thanks to the new Gaokao policy, he’ll be able to take the exam in Guangzhou.

"I’ve been living and studying here for 10 years, if I had to take the exam back in my hometown, it’d take me some time to adapt to the new surrounding and it could affect my studies," said Lin Xiaofan, student of Guangzhou No. 5 Middle School.

Lin is one of the 10,000 migrant students in Guangdong who are qualified to take this year’s college entrance examination, or Gaokao locally. This is the first time the province will open full access to the exam to students from migrant families like him.

In the past a student could only take the Gaokao in the place where they are registered. But Guangdong's new policy allows migrant students to take the exam if they have been going to school in Guangdong for 3 years and if they have a parent that has a 3-year residence permit and social insurance.

Guangdong has 25 million migrant workers. The policy is considered an important educational reform.

Local residents’ opinions vary.

"I’m worried that the competition for students will become more fierce because they have more rivals now," said local resident.

"We should not be so selfish, migrant workers have made great contributions to our city and I think the more rights that they have, the more developed our city will be," said local resident.

Local authorities say the policy was changed to promote educational equity and social stability.

"By solving migrant workers’ problems like their children’s education, we’ll be able to attract more talent to participate in the economic and social development in the province. That involves not only education, but population management and resource allocation as well," said Chen Xuejie, Guangdong Education Examinations Authority.

Officials also stress that they are working on enlarging college enrollment sizes in the province to keep the acceptance rate stable.