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Chinese students are under huge pressure to do well in the annual college entrance exam. Photo: EPA-EFE

Chinese university entrance exam boot camp investigated over fake advertising claims

  • School in Anhui province in spotlight after saying it wanted to recruit students from Shanghai
  • Facility is well known for its military-style training methods

A school in southeast China that operates boot camps for students looking to resit the university entrance exam is being investigated for possible fake advertising, according to various media reports.

In an article about Maotanchang Middle School in Luan, Anhui province, that was widely circulated on social media, a member of its staff was quoted as saying the school was trying to attract students from Shanghai who had failed this year’s test and wanted to prepare to take it again.

The school is known for running high-intensity courses where students are made to spend months sitting scores of past exam papers, Xinmin Evening News reported on Monday.

It has 16,000 students who spend up to 16 hours a day in the classrooms, leaving only to sleep.

The Anhui school was apparently trying to attract students from Shanghai. Photo: EPA-EFE

According to education authorities in Luan’s Jinan district, the school is being investigated for possible fake advertising as the courses it offered are actually being run by Jinan High School, its sister operation, The Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

It said also that Shanghai Maijianshi Information Company was being investigated for its involvement in the recruitment campaign.

Last go at exam success for China’s ‘gaokao grandpa’

The reports said the school was seeking to recruit 300 students from Shanghai who had failed this year’s university entrance examination – known locally as the gaokao – and wanted to resit it in 2020.

According to the report by Xinmin Evening News, the Anhui school is about 560km (350 miles) from Shanghai and charges a minimum of 60,000 yuan (US$8,700) for its military-style courses, with the price going up for students who scored badly in their previous test.

A teacher at the school was quoted as saying the boot camp approach could help people to improve their scores significantly and that the courses were very popular.

“We are a gaokao training camp and our students just do test papers every day,” he said. “The students at Maotanchang [Middle School] do thousands of test papers a year.”

High school students in China are under extreme pressure to do well in the gaokao as it can open the door to the country’s best universities and a brighter future beyond.

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