Gaokao exam acts as a great leveler
Some 9.3 million Chinese students are sitting gaokao or the National College Entrance Exam this week.
As one of the fairest social institutions in China, gaokao carries high expectations for millions of Chinese families. Despite diversified life options in wealthy regions, participating in gaokao still remains a make-or-break moment for most Chinese teenagers.
We have heard too many criticisms about the problems of gaokao, such as it robs children of their childhood and creativity and discriminates against students from regions with less education resources.
Nevertheless, a basic fact is that there is no better alternative to gaokao, given the current social environment. Hasty reforms like rapidly raising colleges' independent enrollment and giving extra marks to students with specialties may further undermine the fairness of the existing talent-selection system, as such flexibility can be exploited by those with powerful social connections.
As a result, Chinese society has been lingering between breaking the stranglehold of gaokao and safeguarding its fairness. Overcoming each problem of gaokao can create a new risk to its fairness. We have no choice but to continue with the gaokao system and minimize its potential unfairness.
In recent years, the number of registered gaokao takers has shrunk whereas college enrollment has expanded. In 1977, when the gaokao system was resumed after a decade of social turbulence, the average college enrollment ratio was less than 5 percent. This ratio soared to 72 percent last year, mirroring a fundamental change in the nation's higher education patterns.
The social anxiety simmering under the gaokao system is essentially dissolving. Colleges should not cut down enrollment quota, due to the shrinking number of gaokao takers. Instead, they should steadily promote the prevalence rate of higher education, which firmly bolsters the development of the nation.
Meanwhile, more enrollment quotas should be allocated to rural and less-developed regions. For many teenagers from poor families, gaokao is the only chance to scale up the social ladder.
It is very difficult to balance the allocation of college enrollment quotas among different regions, and it may solicit social unrest to rashly cut the quotas in big Eastern cities. Nevertheless, propelling higher education expansion and rapidly enhancing enrollment in underdeveloped areas should become a firm policy.
The soaring number of college students and diversified approaches to achievement help alleviate social nerves toward gaokao.
Such worries will ultimately be cleared up through rapid and even social development. This is actually the way many complicated issues are solved in China – as long as we walk ahead with a down-to-earth attitude, many problems may thaw in the trend of social growth and catch all of us by surprise.
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