Gaokao starts with COVID control measures in place

Parents wait for their kids participating in this year’s National College Entrance Exam (NCEE) outside the gate to Shenzhen Middle School yesterday. Sun Yuchen

Along with other parents, a woman surnamed Liu, in a red dress, waited patiently yesterday morning outside Shenzhen Middle School’s gate in Luohu District, where her daughter was participating in the first in a series of tests for this year’s National College Entrance Exam (NCEE), also known as gaokao, which will wrap up tomorrow.

“My child is not allowed to come out as she is living on campus. I just want to accompany her in the way I can,” said Liu.

As new COVID-19 cases have emerged recently in Shenzhen, schools are required to establish a closed management policy for all exam-takers who live on campus before the exam ends.

There were a few parents, like Liu, in red Qipao, waiting at the school gate. The red Qipao was one of their ways to wish children good luck for the exam, a widely deemed life-changing opportunity for Chinese students.

Qipao sounds similar to the Chinese phrase “qikaidesheng,” meaning victory, while red is considered an auspicious color in Chinese culture symbolizing good fortune.

The parents said although they cannot see their children until the three-day exam ends, they want to accompany them outside the school and get a feel for the atmosphere.

After the end of the first test of the Chinese subject, a father was seen delivering a meal box to his daughter via a school fence. The father said that he had been sending meals to his daughter for the past eight days.

“She has been experiencing stomach problems recently. So, I have been delivering home-made food to her because she cannot leave the campus,” said the father.

When waiting at the gate, before the first test ended, a parent, surnamed Su, who is a medical worker with Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital, said: “I was fighting against SARS during conception. Now, we are combating COVID-19. The two things make gaokao very special to us.”

Due to the pandemic, schools across the city have implemented strict COVID-19 prevention measures.

“I did a nucleic acid test before the test,” said Zhao Zhao, a gaokao taker from Shenzhen Middle School. “As I live off the campus, I was told by teachers to directly go back home after school and signed a commitment paper. I had my temperature taken today. I do feel safe to take the exam with all these measures in place.”

A total of 45,852 students in Shenzhen are taking this year’s NCEE at 48 exam sites across the city, with 138 test rooms for backup use.

A record 10.78 million students around the country are expected to take this year’s gaokao, which is perhaps the world’s most grueling test, according to Xinhua News Agency.

Meanwhile, students from Guangdong Province and seven other provincial-level regions will sit the “new gaokao” this year, where a “3+1+2” program has been adopted to allow students to have more exam choices. Whereas, before, they could only chose between liberal arts and science subjects, now a student can chose up to 12 combinations of subjects in accordance with their hobbies, interests and specialty subjects.