Testing times

The struggling job market has also had a knock-on effect and, with fresh graduates being among the worst hit, experts suggest youngsters no longer feel that degrees guarantee an income.

"Getting a (college) education doesn't look like such a good investment any more, which makes becoming a migrant worker more attractive," said rural researcher Wu Guobao.

Figures released by the Ministry of Education show the number of students taking the gaokao, or national college entrance exam, fell for the second year in a row in 2010. Just 9.5 million took the test in June, 650,000 less than last year.

Although officials put the decline down to a drop in the population's 18 to 22 age group, Li Chunling, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' institute of sociology, believes a spike in junior and high school dropouts could also be to blame.

"For urban people born between 1980 and 1985, the chance of them going to college is 5.5 times higher than their rural coeval," she wrote in a paper published in July by Sociological Study, one of the country's most important academic journals.

For a growing number of teenage boys in the countryside, having considerable sums of money and a decent marriage is the ultimate goal in life -- and they see migrant labor, not college, as the best way to achieve it.

Gansu principal Ma Jincheng explained that, in his village, a man can spend up to 40,000 yuan (US$5,900) on getting married -- 20,000 yuan for the dowry and 20,000 for the wedding ceremony. After that, he needs from 100,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan to buy a house.

"Farming can only bring in about 5,000 yuan a year," he said, "so they have no choice but to look for work in the city, where they can earn about 20,000 yuan."

Although elementary and junior high schools have been free since the central government introduced its nine-year compulsory education policy in 1986, parents are still expected to pay out thousands of yuan to send their children to senior high school and college.

Even if families can afford it, Ma said maybe only a quarter of rural students can compete with their urban counterparts in the gaokao and earn a coveted university spot.

Zhou Shengli, who recorded the highest score on this year's national entrance exam in Dongxiang county, will in September continue his studies at the prestigious Nankai University in Tianjin.

Yet, despite being assured a place, the 20-year-old is worried that the course fees of 12,000 yuan for the first year will be too much for his parents, whose combined annual income is just 5,000 yuan. He said he has already applied for a 6,000-yuan bank loan and plans to borrow the rest from his relatives.

Out of the 45 students in Zhou's class at junior high, only eight went on to graduate from high school. He is also the only one to secure a college place. Most others quit to join China's army of migrant workers.