Spring break blog post UPFRONT

The gaokao is a test that high schoolers in China must take in order to determine what college and eventually job they will go to and have. There is much stress riding on their single test for millions of Chinese students. The magazine Upfront has an article called “China’s Cram Schools” that discuses the process many take preparing for this test and all the stress involved. This stress is damaging, unneeded, and unfair to students. For example, this test creates super high stress levels that are unhealthy for students, a bad environment for the students in general as well as an unfair situation for the parents and teachers of the students.

            Super high stakes such as these for the gaokao lead to an unhealthy amount of stress on the students. Loads of stress can be physically and mentally damaging especially at such a young age.  It states in the article “teenage suicide rates start to rise as the gaokao nears. It also states from a boy named Cao, “My mother constantly reminds me that I have to study hard because my father is out working construction far from home to pay my school fees.” This is a crazy amount of pressure and for most there is no way to escape this.

            These students also have work in horrible environments. Many go to “cram schools” where they are packed into rooms with thousands of other students studying around the clock. In the article it states, “Two years ago, a student posted a shocking photograph online. A classroom full of students being hooked up to “intravenous drips” to give them strength to keep studying. This was shocking to many but many find necessary with all the pressure to succeed.

            Another major, unfair factor in the process of the gaokao is money. Poor families put all they have into test prep for the gaokao in order to help the kids escape their fate as a manual laborer and hopefully go to a good collage where they can get a high paying job and support their family. Wealthy families can afford fancy test prep or even other options. It states in the article “Many wealthy families are simply opting out of the system, placing their children in private international schools in china or sending them abroad for an education.” For others there is no alternative to the gaokao, this extremely unfair.

            Overall the gaokao is just another test that can be compared to American standardized tests but it puts much more extreme pressure on teachers, parents and most of all, students. This test is out of hand and needs to be addressed. It is unfair for all this pressure to be put on a high school student toward a test that will determine the rest of their life.