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Grueling exam still best way to ensure fairness
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IF we compare China’s National College Entrance Exam or gaokao to a war, then the students at one Hebei Province high school have acquitted themselves as the best warriors.
On February 26, students from Hengshui No. 2 High School in Hengshui City marked the 100-day countdown to gaokao by chanting slogans en masse. The majority of students are 11th graders expected to sit the exam in June.
They were required by school authorities to gather on the playground and bellow inspiring slogans to brace themselves for the upcoming battle. Slogans included, “We would rather eat bitterness for 100 days than regret for the rest of our lives!” and “Tsinghua and Beida (Peking University), I am coming!” Tsinghua and Beida are the nation’s leading universities.
The sight of these students marching in phalanx and holding up banners bearing motivational slogans is a curious spectacle. The overall atmosphere was one of troops being readied for a looming war. In a further sign of choreographed youthful energy, they were joined by 300 10th graders who spelled the Chinese characters for “Go! 11th Graders!” with their bodies.
The stunt was greeted with both amazement and derision. The school prides itself on its ability to turn out students who score well in gaokao. Last year alone, 25 of its graduates made it to Beida and Tsinghua.
Cram sessions
But the school is also known for its harsh, semi-military discipline and emphasis on cram sessions. Critics denounce the school because its success is built on the loss of students’ individuality, freedoms and perhaps even their health.
In fact, while the mass motivation parade is more like an act of absurdity than a plea for assiduity, it is not unique. Most Chinese students have been admonished in a similar way. Although the Hengshui school’s stunt smacks of brainwashing, and popular criticism has been directed at its cram courses, it remains a well-reputed bulwark of China’s exam-oriented system.
Other such bastions, such as Qidong High School in Jiangsu Province and Huanggang High School in Hubei Province, are held as much in awe as in esteem. No matter how oppressive their curriculum or how teachers are bent on converting students into spartan “studying machines,” they enjoy much prestige, with good reason.
Who can resist the appeal of Tsinghua and Beida anyway?
Their continued popularity also owes a lot to the perceived failure of educational reform.
More tests a year?
During the ongoing session of the national political advisory body, prominent Fudan University professor and adviser Ge Jianxiong told the media that he disagreed with the proposed reform of gaokao.
According to the reform plan, the test will be administered several times a year instead of once a year. This arrangement affords students a greater chance of being enrolled by their dream schools since they can submit their highest scores for consideration. Ge disagreed with this approach. How many times are enough? Should reformers be so responsive that they bend to the will of the lowest common denominators?
He said hat the going will only get tougher for students when gaokao is held several times through the year.
While it is easy to dismiss gaokao as cruelly grueling, its critics often overlook the important role it plays in ensuring equal access to higher education for all. It is not perfect, but it’s the least bad system, compared with a few alternatives. Take the so-called self-administered tests. They grant a handful of universities leeway to admit students who meet their own, non-mainstream criteria.
A little flexibility is a good thing, but more often than not, these university interviews to screen candidates abuse that leeway and end up becoming laughing stocks.
During this year’s test, which ended on Sunday, Fudan University posed applicants such eccentric questions as “Why does man have two eyes, not four? And why not one in the face and the other at the back of the head?” Seriously, is this an attempt at humor or a test of sheer folly? Besides, the students’ physical appearance, gift for extemporaneous and public speaking and family connections can all affect the outcomes. Are these attributes grounds for discriminating against hundreds of thousands of rural students, who have little choice but to advance themselves through gaokao?
In a country where educational resources are unevenly distributed, only gaokao represents a fair and viable way to select talent. Alternatives may improve flexibility and should not be completely ruled out, but too much alternative testing and reform ignore the core issue of equality.
Thinking out of the box
As part of the efforts to ease university admission woes, Premier Li Keqiang recently called for stronger vocational training, during a State Council meeting. This may well prove to be a hard sell, because in the eyes of aspiring students, parents and mainstream education experts, vocational schools are for academic underachievers.
China’s quest to build itself into a powerhouse of innovation requires talented people who think outside the box. But they won’t just happen along because we decide to dismantle gaokao and related institutions.
Persistent critics of the Hengshui No. 2 High School may despise it, consider the students brainwashed and the school an appalling apotheosis of the primitive test-oriented system, but there is one thing they have to admit. The school has proven itself by adhering to a time-tested aphorism: hard work pays off. At a time when Chinese in many fields cut corners to succeed, this principle should resound far and wide.
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