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
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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.
Tuesday was the first time in weeks that many students had seen their classmates, as the capital had closed schools and offices to try and eliminate a coronavirus outbreak.
“At the beginning, my kid was very happy since there was no need to go to school,” said Zhao Dong, whose daughter is sitting the gaokao this year. “But as time went by, looking at her computer for a whole day of class became quite difficult.”
Students taking the exam in Beijing this year must wear masks, show proof of a negative virus test from the past 48 hours and pass a temperature check. Local governments across the country have similar requirements.
Authorities in China are committed to a zero-Covid strategy – using rapid lockdowns, mass testing and strict travel restrictions to eliminate even the smallest outbreaks.
In Shanghai, where 25 million residents are gradually emerging from two months in lockdown, authorities have delayed the exam by a month.
A record 11.93 million people registered for this year’s gaokao, state news agency Xinhua said on Tuesday, with teens in some locked-down neighbourhoods taking the tests in individual hotel rooms.
“This generation of kids entered high school in 2019 ... so the entire second semester of their first year was done at home. They are like an ‘epidemic generation’,” Zhao said.
