Gāokǎo 高考, China’s nation-wide National College Entrance Examinations, were kicked off today, 7 June 2021. It’s a standardised test for entrance into all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, in 2021, the number of candidates attending Gaokao is 10.78 million, an increase of 70,000 compared to last year, setting a new record high.
High-tech exam procedures are in place
Facial recognition equipment was added to the entrances of all examination rooms in Beijing this year. All candidates must pass through the high-tech exam terminal system before entering their exam rooms. According to the Beijing Education Examination Institute, facial recognition and other technologies were adopted to strengthen the identity verification of candidates. They also prevent prohibited items, such as high-tech cheating tools from being brought into the exam room, as well as discouraging students from paying others to take their test for them.
All exams in Guangzhou were made COVID-19 secure
Since the outbreak of new COVID-19 cases in late May and 11 new locally transmitted cases in Guangzhou, the city added special actions to prevent the spread of the virus during the exam period.
Candidates with confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been taking the exam at a medical treatment facility; while first and second-degree contacts of infected students have been taking the exam at isolated test centers. Other general examinees must provide a negative nucleic acid test report two days before the exam is due to take place. All test papers are disinfected after exams.
All of us at Dao Insights wish this year’s examinees the best of luck! Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to be kept up-to-date on Gaokao and more news from China.
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