The Chinese National College Entrance Examination

Gaokao and Harmful Competition
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Gaokao and Harmful Competition
Introduction
The Chinese National College Entrance Examination (NCEE) also known as the Gaokao is the single most important determinant of examinees’ future and the driving force behind the whole nation’s education system and curriculum. Gaokao is taken by Chinese students in their final or third year of high school and is the sole criterion for admission into the country’s top universities. The Chinese national college entrance exam has for several years been blamed for the toxic levels of stress that both students and families experience (Zhao et al., 2015). Preparing for the high-stakes standardized exam, which dictates students’ careers, wealth, and even marriage prospects, is a grueling process and most students spend their final year of high school nervously preparing for the tests. While most people criticize the exam for putting overwhelming stress and pressure on learners, most people support the taxing assessment because it gives the disadvantaged a chance to succeed in life.
In a country rife with corruption, Gaokao is often viewed as a fair exam because of its uniform anonymously-graded tests: it is considered as the great equalizer that rewards hard work and an opportunity for anyone to climb the social ladder. However, only 1 percent of the nine and a half million students that take the exam are admitted to China’s top universities. The Gaokao system emphasizes learning sciences and technical skills critical to achieving the country’s goals of industrialization (Wu & Devine, 2017). In a society that often favors credentials over talent or critical thinking, a few points are considered the difference between wealth and poverty. Consequently, the competition between students is often unhealthy because the rewards for passing the exam are real and life-changing. This research paper will study the toxic competitive mindset among students taking the Gaokao and how this affects their future careers.
Background
Although the Gaokao system was started during the early years of university institution in China, the high-stakes testing system has a history stretching back to the Sui dynasty where government officials were selected using a national exam process (Wu & Devine, 2017). With the use of the keju system, applicants competed to be selected for the state bureaucracy. The grueling tests, just like the Gaokao, involved rote memorization of material and high failure rates fueled intense competition among candidates. High-stakes examinations in China have for more than 2,000 years driven unhealthy competition between students because the learning task has always been characterized as a means to social mobility. However, they have also been criticized for failing to promote deep learning and character growth among learners into well-rounded individuals (Yu et al., 2016). While standardized high-stakes tests ensure that everyone is chosen by merit and not by their wealth or lineage, it is not uncommon for students to resort to toxic competitive strategies. The Gaokao system is plagued by cases of cheating and China’s elite often spend large sums of money for their children’s private tuition to guarantee success (You & Hu, 2013). Cases of students wearing tiny earpieces or using wireless cheating devices as well as hiring stand-ins to do the tests in their place have dogged the Gaokao for years. Unfortunately, parents are typically involved in these elaborate schemes just to ensure that their children have a head start in life.
Because cheating is so common in certain cities and provinces, some parents in other districts see cheating as the fairest way to succeed in the Gaokao. In some cases, parents have formed angry mobs after the invigilators confiscated their children’s exam cheating gadgets (Liu & Helwig, 2020). For instance, disgruntled parents in Zhongxiang, a city in Hubei Province, attacked exam officials after they seized their children’s cell phones and refused the bribes offered to them. The government has been forced to resort to extreme measures such as the use of metal detectors, facial recognition technology, and drones to prevent the rampant and sophisticated cheating that includes the use of secret transmitters looking like common stationery (Xiao, 2002). The desire to succeed at whatever cost among both students and parents has driven a private school tutoring industry where wealthy parents make exorbitant payments to ensure their offspring perform well. Many families are willing to funnel all their resources to private tutors, including university students who just succeeded in the test themselves, to prepare their children for the exams. Students typically spend several hours after returning home from school and even forego breaks on weekends just to be competitive in the rigorous exams (Lu et al., 2018). Because the Gaokao is an ever-looming object of fear, parents start taking their children to private tutoring classes very early. Unfortunately, not all parents can afford to pay for their children’s expensive tutoring and most families in the rural, poorer provinces are at a disadvantage because in addition to their lack of means, most rural schools are underfunded and understaffed. Moreover, most top universities are located in urban regions and the quota system tends to advantage candidates from big eastern cities and disadvantage those from rural regions (Hamnett et al., 2019). Students learning in these schools require private tutoring more than those from elite, urban, and richer provinces.
The rise of for-profit tutoring centers has forced the Chinese government to eliminate the unfair competition posed by tutoring services by reining the private education ministry. China has restricted for-profit teaching in core school subjects and banned tutoring institutions from capital operation or even listing. Even though this directive could level the unhealthy competition that characterizes Gaokao, it is very likely that wealthier parents will find a way round the ban and continue hiring private tutors. Besides cheating, after-school classes are seen as essential to academic triumph in the notoriously demanding university entrance exam. These two forms of unhealthy competition defeat the ideology of meritocracy upon which the Gaokao is founded (Liu, 2013). The fiercely competitive high-stakes test will continue driving the tutoring services industry and it is likely that the government’s recent efforts at curbing the industry will continue exacerbating inequality and unhealthy competition. On the whole, these disparities in social classes and school inequalities speak to the toxic competitive spirit among students (as well as their parents) preparing for the Gaokao exam.
Research Objectives
The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the toxic competitive mindset among students taking the Gaokao and how this affects their future careers. It will also seek to uncover ways the education department can mitigate against the harmful competition driven by the high-stakes exam system while retaining the benefits it gives to less-privileged families.
Methods
The study conducted a systemic review of existing literature on high-stakes testing and especially the Gaokao system using various databases containing peer-reviewed articles. Other sources of data included Chinese education reports from government and non-government agencies as well as scholarly books. Only those materials that were relevant to the research objectives were included in the study. Once a dataset that appeared viable in meeting study aims was located, evaluation of the same was conducted to answer the specific research questions. Special consideration was given to what information was act...