In Depth: China Orders Random Class Placement to Break School Hierarchies

Education authorities are dismantling ‘key classes’ in compulsory schooling, yet parental competition and informal selection channels continue to recreate academic stratification

Students enter the school grounds on the first day of the new semester in September 2022 in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong province. Photo: VCG

China is attempting to dismantle one of the most entrenched hierarchies in its schools: sorting students into academically ranked classes.

Under new policies rolled out in 2026, education authorities are mandating “sunshine class placement,” which requires students be assigned to classes randomly and teachers to be distributed evenly. The rules explicitly prohibit the creation of “key classes,” elite streams that have long concentrated top students and teaching resources.

The reforms are part of a broader push to reduce inequality in compulsory education, which includes primary and junior high school. But they are colliding with a deeply embedded system that has for years shaped how families compete for advantage, and how schools manage students.

A hidden hierarchy

So-called key classes function as internal academic tiers.