A 15-year-old girl called Zhan Haite and her parents have become unwilling controversial figures in Shanghai because of their fight for the right for Haite to continue her studies here. I believe Zhan deserves this basic human right as much as any other child in the city.

Zhan is one of 500,000 children of migrant workers living in Shanghai. She was born in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province but grew up in Shanghai, although her hukou (household registration) is in Jiangxi Province in her parents' hometown.

She completed both her primary school and secondary school education here. However, because she does not yet have a Shanghai hukou, she was the only student in her class barred from taking the zhongkao, or entrance exam to senior high school.

This is the current, lamentable policy of Shanghai education authorities, and which is depriving half a million children of the right to study in a senior high school in the same city where their parents live.

The only options for these children are to study in non-academic, vocational schools in Shanghai, or return to their hometowns. But how many 15-year-olds would like to be separated from their parents? And what if they don't have surviving grandparents back in their hometown? Where are they supposed to live?

Zhan's experience reminds me of a story I wrote two years ago about another child of migrants, Liu Yanxia, who reluctantly decided to study at a vocational school.

But while Liu's story is depressingly similar to Zhan's, the difference is that Zhan has decided not to take this discrimination lying down. And she has been active in online social networks of late, publicizing her cause and gathering the experiences of children in similar situations.

And her actions have aroused heated debate among local citizens. On one online forum, she was referred to as a "locust." And over the past several months, Zhan and her parents have become the victims of both verbal and physical abuse.

Why am I in favor of giving equal rights to Zhan and children like her? First of all, I think the right to receive a high-quality education should be given to every Chinese citizen. And regardless of where Zhan was born, she was educated and brought up in this city and it is where her family have made their home. I am Shanghainese, and I think discriminating against migrant workers' children in this way can never be justified.

I understand that our country has a large population and relatively limited educational resources. And I respect the concern of those who fear their children will lose out if there are more pupils to share these resources.

However we need to accept that one-third of the people living in this city today are not even originally from Shanghai, and this is a trend that is only going to continue.

I am in favor of the direction of current reforms, whereby the education authorities said they will start a graded system for children of migrant workers to be able to attend local senior high schools depending on their parents' working and housing status. However, the authorities have yet to implement a timetable for when these reforms will be implemented.

Shanghai's famous pride and spirit in its openness and tolerance is summed up in the oft-used local phrase, "all rivers run into the sea (hai na bai chuan)." The sea, in this case, refers to the whole of China - not just our little corner of it.