Millions sit test that could determine their future
Print Edition
MORE than 9.4 million high school students began their national college entrance exams yesterday.
The gaokao is often referred to as a “battle to determine fate” as its results decide whether a student goes to college, back to school for another year, or tries to find a job.
Because the stakes are high, cheating is a recurring problem.
Just two hours after the test began, an alleged surrogate exam-taker was apprehended in the eastern city of Nanchang.
The suspect is said to have admitted to being a stand-in and the education ministry has launched an investigation.
The authorities have already seized 23 suspects in a special campaign to crack down on the sale of wireless devices used for cheating, the sale of material claiming to be exam answers and the practice of using substitute exam sitters,.
More than 80 education officials, teachers, invigilators, students and even parents received punishments ranging from warnings to dismissals in central China’s Hubei Province after last year’s examination.
Though the scams will never disappear, the gaokao is said to have become fairer since the introduction of new rules last year, some of the biggest changes since 1977.
The fresh measures include discarding “extra” scores awarded for sporting or artistic achievement, such as playing a musical instrument.
The plan also tips the scales more toward underprivileged groups by expanding enrollment quotas for students from less developed central and western parts of the country, helping those from poorer provinces get into top universities.
Yan Jiliang, an 18-year-old candidate from a village in northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, said he believed the new rules had leveled the playing field, which he saw as an opportunity to control his own fate.
Measures are also helping physically challenged candidates. The education authority in Guangdong Province printed papers with a larger font for six candidates with visual impairments. They, plus eight who have difficulty in writing due to cerebral palsy, were permitted to extend their test time in accordance with one of the new rules. Candidates with hearing problems were allowed to bring hearing aids and sign language interpreters were assigned for those in need.
“My boy grew more confident when he heard about the policy,” said Xu Mingguo, whose son has cerebral palsy. “Now he plans to become a finance expert.”
The exam lasts for two or three days in different regions.
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