2012年(464)
分类: Delphi
2012-06-15 12:58:11
At the gates of Shanghai Beijiao Middle School on the morning of the gaokao,
students thumb their textbooks frantically. The number sitting China’s
notoriously tough university-entrance exam each year is falling (6,000 fewer
students took the exam in Shanghai this year; an effect of the one-child
policy). But the atmosphere is as panicked as ever. A makeshift table sells
traditional Chinese medicine to soothe nerves. Across China each year counselling
hotlines are buzzing. Birth-control pills are administered to female students
who fear menstruating on an inopportune day. Last month the Chinese media was
ablaze with photos of students hooked to energy-boosting intravenous
drips.
More than 9m students sat the gaokao on June 7th and 8th this year.
For many, the exam comes as the culmination of months of cramming, years of
tutoring and abnegated personal lives.
The notoriously tough National Higher
Education Entrance Examination, or gaokao for short, is a milestone for young
Chinese people. Since it was established in 1952 (excepting an interruption by
the Cultural Revolution) the two-day exam has been meant to elevate those who
will benefit most from higher education while allocating places in a way that is
fair to all. University admissions departments focus almost exclusively on
thegaokao score. The result is colossal pressure on the test-taking
students.
At the gates of Shanghai Beijiao, Ms Yu wishes she had made her son
Pan Ziren work harder. Though young Mr Pan has been rising at 5.30am and
studying until 1am for the past six months, Ms Yu thinks he has wasted his years
in school. He was addicted to kung-fu novels, she says. “I’d find him reading
with a torch, deep in the night. Maybe it is my fault for going on about the
importance of the gaokao. It caused his rebellious attitude.”
Though each
year more students go to university (the admission rate is up 3% this year)
spots at elite institutions are oversubscribed. Less than 0.2% of gaokao takers
will get into China’s top five universities. Graduate opportunities for students
who attend a top university are dramatically different to those who don’t, says
Jeffrey Lehman, vice-chancellor of New York University’s branch campus in
Shanghai.
Peng Cheng, an 18-year-old student from Hunan province, has much to
lose. “Studying is the
only way to get out of my hometown”, he says. Mr Peng was one of only three
students from his province, which has a population of 65m, selected for a
special scheme at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Mr Peng gets an additional 30
points on his gaokaoscore, as well as guaranteed admission.