Beijing issued a second red alert for air pollution on Friday, only 10 days after the first. The National Meteorological Center predicted that this four-day bout of smog, rolling from Shannxi Province through the capital and its surrounding areas and up to the chilly northeast, would be the worst of the year. As forecasted, a new wave of heavy smog has arrived as promised, shrouding the much-blighted capital city again.

Since the beginning of this winter, the four-tiered alert system for smog has been regularly reminding Beijingers of the depressing conditions they live in. However, apart from North China, which is the most severely afflicted area, the central and western regions have also been suffering from increasingly alarming smog recently. Urumqi in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, was enveloped by a spell of smog that cut visibility to less than 100 meters in November. Earlier this month, China's northernmost provincial capital city Harbin, was hit by blizzards and choking smog at the same time. When each spell of hazardous smog descends, locals have to wait for a strong gale to disperse it.

With the airpocalypse blanketing over half of the Chinese territory, local governments, environmental protection bureaus and other relevant sectors have adopted rigid measures to reduce pollution, like the odd-even license plate system, the ban on outdoor construction, no fireworks and outdoor barbecues. Shanghai's recently introduced "smog fee" plan charging 12 heavily polluting industries for emitting volatile organic compounds has drawn wide controversy.

Nonetheless, Beijing has been practicing tougher restrictions than other affected areas. Ordering kindergartens, primary and middle schools, and extracurricular education institutions to close under a red alert provides a pertinent example. While Beijing locals are beefing about the inconveniences of leaving their children alone at home, parents in affected regions other than the capital express their concern about their children being exposed to the noxious air pollutants when there is no such policy suggestion.

"In heavily smoggy days, some slightly shortsighted classmates can't see the characters on the blackboard clearly. Why don't we have the same privilege as Beijing students?" a student from Baoding wrote online. "No one cared about us when the PM2.5 reading reached around 500 micrograms per cubic meter," a student from Anyang in Central China's Henan Province complained about continuing to commute between school and home. Some argue that it's the downright cruel competition in the yearly national college entrance examination, known as gaokao, that makes provinces like Hebei not willing to take the risk of letting students stay home.

As is widely known, Beijing has the best educational resources, with excellent teaching staff and a relaxing academic environment. Educational injustice and unfairness has long been an intractable conundrum in China. Students with Beijing registered residences enjoy easier tests and lower admission thresholds for top universities because those top schools are local to Beijing.

According to a 2013 report, the enrolment rate for Peking University in Beijing was 31 times higher than that in Henan. Furthermore, the average higher education institutions' acceptance rate in the capital has stayed over 80 percent during the past five years, higher than the best record of 76 percent nationwide in 2013.

Therefore, when the Beijing Municipal Commission of Education introduces countermeasures against the smog alert, other regions can't afford the consequences even when their own skies are dark. In Baoding, a long-time occupant on the list of the top five worst polluted cities, there are month-long restrictions including the odd-even license plate system and prohibitions against outdoor construction, even more rigorous than Beijing. But there's no rule that children stay indoors.

What a pity when children's health is less important than their academic scores! It seems we still have a long way to go to fully achieve equality in education while making every effort to minimize the health impact of smog.

Wang Xinke, a Beijing-based freelance writer