10.71m students set for key exam
Print Edition
Zhu Lijuan has put her daughter’s safety over academic performance to prepare her for the national college entrance exam this week, with the whole semester overshadowed by the novel coronavirus epidemic.
“It has been a special year. This year’s examinees in Beijing will be the first to try the reformed exam, which will be extended to four days. My daughter has neither been able to prepare for the exam in school nor in extracurricular tutoring classes due to safety concerns amid the epidemic,” said Zhu, a resident from Fengtai District.
Zhu’s daughter only had classes on campus at No. 8 Middle School between April 27 and June 16, when Beijing contained its domestic transmission of COVID-19.
For the rest of the semester, she could only study at home, reporting her health condition daily to the school.
She will be among the 10.71 million students to sit this year’s national college entrance exam in China starting tomorrow, an increase of 400,000 over last year, according to the Ministry of Education.
The ministry decided on March 31 to delay the exam by one month due to COVID-19.
The exam will be the largest organized event in the country since the outbreak. More than 7,000 exam sites will be set up, including around 400,000 exam rooms, and 945,000 people will work as invigilators or service providers.
Beijing will have 49,225 students sitting the exam. Each classroom designated for the exam will allow 20 students, down from 30 in the past, according to Li Yi, a spokesperson for the Beijing municipal education commission.
The exam, also known as gaokao, is deemed the most important event for Chinese students. It has been hailed as a fair system to select talent and change the fate of children from poor families.
All designated exam sites in Beijing have been under closed-off management.
Since June 11, Beijing has seen a resurgence in locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, prompting the local government to tighten containment measures.
From June 11 to July 2, Beijing reported 331 confirmed locally transmitted cases, 324 of whom were still hospitalized. There are 29 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, according to the municipal health commission.
“Our school has prepared 40 exam rooms and four spare classrooms in case anyone exhibits symptoms of fever and cough during the exam,” said Wang Jinjie, deputy chief of the exam site at Dayu Middle School in Mentougou District.
He said staff will continue to disinfect the classrooms, arrange tables and chairs and check air conditioners.
Li with the education commission said that no confirmed or suspected cases have been found among Beijing college entrance examination candidates. Beijing has not mandated all examinees to take nucleic acid tests but has required all invigilators to take the test seven days before the exam. During the exam, all people at the exam sites should wear masks throughout the exam.
This year, Beijing and Tianjin, as well as Shandong and Hainan provinces will join the education reform based on the revised curriculum, which will also see the gaokao extended to four days. In addition to math, Chinese and English, which are mandatory subjects, examinees will take the exam for three elective subjects.
When the school semester started in February, students were restricted to their homes due to the outbreak. Schools were required to open online curriculums by using official educational websites to ensure students “are occupied with the guided study at home.”
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