Is the Gaokao fair?

By CGTN's Ding Dai

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the resumption of China's annual college entrance examination, the Gaokao, which is regarded by many Chinese students as their best shot at a bright future. But does the Gaokao give all students a fair chance? Experts gave CGTN’s World Insight their thoughts on this testing topic.

Wang Yan from the National Institute of Education Science of China believes the Gaokao is one of the fairest academic systems in the world. “There’s a pretty high degree of fairness in educational opportunities," especially since the government last year introduced "a new policy to allocate more quota to the under-developed regions,” Wang said.

She added that social capital does play a role and the government needs to intervene to make the system more equitable. “I think China is doing well in this regard,” she said.

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But David Moser, academic director at Capital Normal University, disagrees with Wang on the Gaokao's fairness. He said he thinks the big problem is that it tends to select students who are good at taking tests – "acquiring and spitting out that kind of knowledge. It means tests can only cover certain kinds of knowledge that are able to be put on a multiple-choice question sheet.”

The Chinese government has been calling for Gaokao reform since the 1990s. One of the major concerns has been increasing the enrollment rate. Back in 1977, the gross enrollment rate, which is the number of college students among all young people aged between 18-22, was barely 4.8 percent.

BY 2016, this ratio had jumped to around 40 percent. But this enlargement of college enrollment has also created problems. For instance, the increased supply of graduates does not match demand from the job market, and this devalues college degrees.

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But for Professor Li Jun from the University of Hong Kong, the Gaokao is still very important to Chinese students. “I think for Gaokao itself, it means two things. One thing is how to select the most talented, the brightest students into universities for their further development for the sake of the whole society. Second is about the fairness – the educational equality. How this equality can be kept to a certain level so that the young generation can move up.”

Although there has been criticism of the system, we can't deny that under this system, Chinese students have developed a strong grasp of science and math. In the meantime, we should admit that Chinese students have shortcomings in their overall ability. But to pave the way for the future generations, China has never stopped seeking an optimal system of education.

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