2-3 Testing Times

Testing times

1. At the gates of Shanghai Beijiao Middle School on the morning of the gaokao, students thumb their textbooks frantically. The number sitting China’s notoriously tough university-entrance exam each year is falling (6,000 fewer students took the exam in Shanghai this year; an effect of the one-child policy). But the atmosphere is as panicked as ever. A makeshift table sells traditional Chinese medicine to soothe nerves. Across China each year counselling hotlines are buzzing. Birth-control pills are administered to female students who fear menstruating on an inopportune day. Last month the Chinese media was ablaze with photos of students hooked to energy-boosting intravenous drips. More than 9m students sat the gaokao on June 7th and 8th this year. For many, the exam comes as the culmination of months of cramming, years of tutoring and abnegated personal lives.

2. The notoriously tough National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or gaokao for short, is a milestone for young Chinese people. Since it was established in 1952 (excepting an interruption by the Cultural Revolution) the two-day exam has been meant to elevate those who will benefit most from higher education while allocating places in a way that is fair to all. University admissions departments focus almost exclusively on the gaokao score. The result is colossal pressure on the test-taking students.

3. At the gates of Shanghai Beijiao, Ms. Yu wishes she had made her son Pan Ziren work harder. Though young Mr Pan has been rising at 5.30am and studying until 1am for the past six months, Ms. Yu thinks he has wasted his years in school. He was addicted to kung-fu novels, she says. “I’d find him reading with a torch, deep in the night. Maybe it is my fault for going on about the importance of the gaokao. It caused his rebellious attitude.”

4. Though each year more students go to university (the admission rate is up 3% this year) spots at elite institutions are oversubscribed. Less than 0.2% of gaokao takers will get into China’s top five universities. Graduate opportunities for students who attend a top university are dramatically different to those who don’t, says Jeffrey Lehman, vice-chancellor of New York University’s branch campus in Shanghai.

5. Peng Cheng, an 18-year-old student from Hunan province, has much to lose. “Studying is the only way to get out of my hometown”, he says. Mr Peng was one of only three students from his province, which has a population of 65m, selected for a special scheme at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Mr Peng gets an additional 30 points on his gaokaoscore, as well as guaranteed admission.

6. Mr Peng’s handicap is part of an attempt by the university to redress a greater imbalance in Chinese education. Students sit the gaokao in the place they are registered in the hukou system, which has the effect of putting students from rural areas at a steep disadvantage. Close proximity of a test-taker’s registration to an institution raises the chance of admission; it is 16 times easier for a Bejiing student to get a place at Tsinghua than it is for a student from Hunan, where there are few first-rate options. Many urban students are registered in the countryside, so they return to the village for the exam. Last October a group of leading scholars submitted a petition to Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, calling for the abolishment of the hukou restrictions.

7. Mr He, a law professor at Tsinghua University and one of the petitioners, sees a further flaw in the gaokao system. It promotes the survival of the fittest, he says, but not of the best. The students are trained exclusively for the studying and answering of test papers. But the majority lack the skills to join in classroom discussion. Independence of thought is subordinated to the demands of rote learning. The students who emerge from this system often find it difficult to make basic social engagement, let alone intellectual collaboration.

8. This was true for Mr Peng. Because he was star pupil, he was kept away from boys in class who could distract him. He has no friends, he says, and turns to internet cafes to ward off loneliness. But, gaokao score permitting, Mr Peng is now looking forward to his move to the big city. He hopes to find time for a girlfriend, and for other distractions besides. He fell in love with a girl at his high school. “But I knew a relationship would ruin my dream of getting out. So I never told her.”