Gruelling gaokao exams put China’s ‘epidemic generation’ to the test
- The class of 2022 is the first to have completed the entire high school curriculum under the shadow of Covid-19
- As students across the country line up for the first day of the college entrance exam, Shanghai candidates must wait another month
The class of 2022 is the first to have completed the entire high school curriculum under the shadow of the pandemic, bouncing between online and offline classes and adapting to frequent Covid-19 tests and sudden closures.
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Record number of students begin taking China’s gaokao national college exams
The constant uncertainty has compounded the already intense stress of the gaokao, which can determine a teenager’s life path in China’s highly competitive academic and job environment.
“These kids haven’t had it easy,” said Jin Lijuan, mother of a gaokao candidate, outside a high school in Beijing.
Anxious parents offered words of encouragement to their children and took photos outside the school as students shuffled through its gates, some still cramming at the last minute.
Police officers guided traffic around the campus. Signs near the school asked drivers not to honk.