Tag: Gaokao Test

Early Education in China: Culture

abecklehimer / / Education

By A. Becklehimer and M. Turner

With China’s modern education system clearing not living up to its potential, seen by the only mediocre performance of students and their less than desirable state of health, many people are questioning the problems and how to fix them. Similar in nature to America’s ACT, China’s “Gaokao” test is a cumulative review of their education thus far, and is state mandated (Zhao, Xu, Haste, Selman). Unlike other systems that also take large consideration of other factors, such as personal merit, experience, grades, and involvement, China’s system relies very heavily on this one test, which will forever determine where the student can attend school. The pressure to do well on this test is what has created such a hostile and counterproductive environment to learn in for these students. This pressure is only heightened by the one-child culture China has thrown itself into. As each student is now a second-generation only child, this means they will have two parents and four grandparents that dedicate their time to the child, and will expect highly of the only child to do a good job representing the family. The lack of siblings to divert attention from these students has all the more created an environment that only promotes the drilling of the highly government-regulated education into their minds. Some Chinese parents having tried to take action against this by placing their children in private schools with alternative methods of education, often labeling themselves as havens that will “emphasize the need to help children that develop as individuals.” (Johnson) The goal of these schools is to actually make sure the children leave as smarter and more well rounded individuals, as opposed to the hive-mind the government has attempted to create with state-modified accounts of every little detail.

Ian Johnson. “China’s new bourgeoisie discovers alternative education.” New Yorker Vol. 89, Issue 47 Febuary 3, 2014. 34.

Zhao, Xu, Helen Haste, and Robert L. Selman. “Questionable Lessons From China’s Recent History of Education Reform.” Education Week 33, no. 18 (January 22, 2014): 32.

Gaokao, For Better or For Worse

lpope / / Education

By A. Nichols

http://www.wantchinatimes.com/news-subclass-cnt.aspx?cid=1103&MainCatID=11&id=20120608000007

Soon after students studying in China graduate, possibly the biggest turning point in their lives will occur: the gaokao. The gaokao is China’s university entrance examination. It is the test that goes far beyond simple academics. It often determines the financial success a student will have in life, as it is the only thing necessary for entering a university. More so than the SAT, the gaokao determines the course of the test-taker’s life. One Chinese student noted, “We can lose everything at the gaokao: a bad score in the gaokao means we go to a bad university … This means we get a bad job … and this means we will have a bad life.”* This puts so much stress on students that it is not unusual for a student to become physically and psychologically ill. In short, the gaokao is an unyielding process, a mechanism that charts not only a person’s academic path, but largely determines his or her station in life.

In secondary school, no matter where the student lives, the senior year is one long cramming session with the culmination

of everything they learned over years of diligent, difficult work in one three-day test. It is not unusual for students in secondary school to get up at four in the morning to study before school every day, and stay late into the night afterward. In one notable classroom “students [were] taking energy-boosting amino acids from intravenous drips hung from the ceiling” to continue working. In her article, Professor Lindsey Lucenta notes, “[Students] endure an exhausting high school experience because preparing for the gaokao consumes all their time academically and socially. Once in college, many admit being overwhelmed with their newly available free time, never having developed any hobbies or interests beyond studying.” The gaokao encourages schools to teach students in a way that leaves them without analytical or critical thinking skills, but full of knowledge that is not necessarily relevant.

Students in Chinese schools speak about this topic. “If they fail the gaokao, parents and teachers will view them as bad boys even if they might be good in many other respects. If you are good at study, everything is fine [said in exasperation] and there is no problem. If your grades are good, then you are good. If your grades are bad, then you are bad. You are bad. You are bad, and there is nothing you can do to change this.”*

Despite all of the headaches and heartaches it brings, the gaokao is unlikely to disappear. The general public—students among them—have ambiguous feelings toward the gaokao. Those who have taken it are conflicted between the feeling of pride and horror. “Some have said that the entrance exam deprives children of their childhood, but they also argue that the exam gives every child the same right to dream and the same opportunity to achieve their dreams.“People used to say you were not a man until you climbed the Great Wall. Now, they say you are not a man until you do the gaokao.”*