China outlines exam reform plans
Print Edition
PLANS to overhaul China’s exam and enrollment system in high schools and colleges by 2020 were outlined in a State Council circular yesterday.
The reforms are aimed at easing pressure, promoting fairness and increasing supervision, Du Yubo, vice education minister, told a news conference.
One measure will see parts of the college entrance exam, or gaokao, taken throughout the year, rather than on graduation.
Pilot programs will be carried out in Shanghai and Zhejiang’s high schools this semester and expanded nationwide three years later, the circular said.
From 2017, college admission in the pilot regions will consist of three parts — students’ high school academic tests, gaokao scores and a comprehensive evaluation reflecting students’ morality, health, interests, special skills and social practices.
Students will no longer be divided into humanities and sciences majors to equip them with a solid foundation of knowledge for college and to tackle the phenomenon where some students tend to go overboard on one subject.
The number of subjects in the gaokao will increase from four to six.
Students will sit Chinese, math and English exams and can choose three of six optional subjects from ideology and politics, history, geography, physics, chemistry and biology.
They will be able to sit the English test twice and choose the higher score, the circular said.
Currently, gaokao students in Shanghai sit four subjects once only — Chinese, math, English and one of the six options.
Fears that more test subjects would bring more study pressure as students strived for excellent scores in every subject were dismissed by Yu Lizhong, chancellor of NYU Shanghai.
Yu said the goal was not to achieve a high score, but to improve learning ability, expand horizons and exercise thinking skills.
“People who have a mindset that the more test subjects means the more study burden still value scores as more important than anything else. It is a typical test-oriented way of thinking,” Yu said.
Yu said students should learn how to make choices about what to learn, something which will be helpful in their future studies and careers.
The circular also asks universities and colleges to make specific enrollment requirements based on students’ gaokao scores and academic tests for different majors so that schools can select the most suitable candidates, compared to enrolling students based on a total score.
“The new plan has given much freedom to Chinese colleges and universities and will propel them to think what kind of talent they want and how they will cultivate the students,” Yu said.
“As far as I see, the new plan, though not perfect, has made a big step toward a new talent selection mode to meet the current demand for China’s development,” Yu said.
The Shanghai Education Commission said yesterday it would reveal more details of its reform plans after they are approved.
The current system has drawn complaints due to its overemphasis on scores to the detriment of students’ all-round growth and is also criticized as placing an unhealthy emphasis on the role of gaokao in students’ lives.
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