Coronavirus in China: some PE tests scrapped for high school entrance exams

Shanghai has become the first major city in China to scrap a physical education (PE) test for the high school entrance exam because of concerns over lingering health effects from Covid-19 infections.

The announcement on Tuesday came after local lawmakers and parents called to have the test – scheduled for April or May – cancelled over worries that students had not fully recovered from the latest wave of coronavirus infections that swept across the country after China abandoned its zero-Covid policy.

Public health experts have estimated that 80 per cent of the population had been infected since the restrictions were eased.

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Last month Shi Zheng, a deputy in the Shanghai People’s Congress, said she advised that the test be cancelled because strenuous exercise would not be suitable for students still recovering from infections, according to a report by local news portal The Paper.

Many parents had raised concerns to local education officials that daily fitness activities, particularly the cardio-intensive exercises, would be dangerous for children who had just recovered from Covid-19, the report said.

On Tuesday, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission announced that the PE test would be suspended this year and that all students would receive a full score for that portion of the entrance exam.

Similar concerns had been raised by parents elsewhere in the country.

After three years of Covid-19 – and government restrictions to control it – students have lacked a structured study routine as well as regular physical exercise.

“Most students were infected and would put their health at risk if they trained for the test,” parent Jiang Zhenhai wrote on the government website.

Other cities have scrapped the cardio-intensive portions of the physical tests, which can vary by city.

The cities of Suzhou and Yangzhou in Jiangsu province suspended their mandatory 1,000-metre (3,020-feet) runs for boys and 800-metre runs for girls. Wuxi also called off its 50-metre swimming tests.

“I think it’s humane and reasonable for the government to cancel the PE test,” said the mother of a ninth-grade student in Shanghai. “My child does not feel fully recovered from the large wave of infections last year. Some of his classmates also said they were feeling low energy sometimes.”

Cancelling the PE test would relieve her child of some stress to prepare for the exam and she would not worry about his health, either, she added.

“I support Shanghai and other cities’ decisions to suspend the PE test,” said a teacher surnamed Tang from a high school in Beijing. Requiring students who were recently infected with Covid to take PE tests could be “dangerous”, he added.

“It is risky for parents and schools too. No one wants to risk [students’ health and life] for this,” Tang said.

The National Health Commission said last month that new rules would be put into place to monitor the health of students once classes resumed for the first time since students were sent home last November.

Some cities, such as Guangzhou, issued new guidelines for PE classes after the Covid infections.

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“While children tend to recover faster than adults do, there are some cases where children can continue to feel symptoms more than six months later,” said Carlos Oliveira, a specialist in paediatric infectious diseases at the Yale School of Medicine, in a video posted on the website for the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund earlier this month.

Oliveira suggested that parents be mindful of the stress on children after Covid, and watch out for cardiac symptoms, such as children who report feeling faster heartbeats even after minimal activity.