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On May 24,2011, in the Second Middle School of Quanzhou County of Guangxi, the grade three students were saving each minute to review the lessons and prepare for the coming Gao Kao. Generally, Chinese parents hope their sons to become dragon, daughter to become pheonix and pay even greater attention to the education chances of their children. Gao Kao is not only the realization of dreams for the students, but also for their parents.

By Bernd Chang

The Chinese National Higher Education Entrance Examination, or National College Entrance Examination, or commonly known as Gao Kao (高考), is an academic examination held annually in the mainland of the People's Republic of China. This examination is a prerequisite for entrance into almost all higher education institutions at the undergraduate level. It is usually taken by students in their last year of high school, although there has been no age restriction since 2001.

The overall mark received by the student is generally a weighted sum of their subject marks. The maximum possible mark varies wildly from year to year and also varies from province to province.

Tertiary education entrance examinations started in the early years when modern universities emerged in China, and continued after the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949 until the Cultural Revolution began in 1966 when the normal pace of the education system and other sectors of life were disrupted.

The unified national college entrance examination in 1952 marked the start of reform of National Matriculation Tests (NMT) Policies in the newly established PRC. On July 1966, the NMT was officially canceled and substituted by a new admission policy of recommending workers, farmers and soldiers to college. During the next ten years, the Down to the Countryside Movement, initiated by Mao Zedong, forced both senior and junior secondary school graduates, the so-called "intellectual youths", to go to the country and work as farmers in the villages.

In late 1977, Deng Xiaoping, then under Hua Guofeng, the heir apparent of Mao, officially resumed the traditional examination based on academics, the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, which has continued to the present day.

The first such examination after the Cultural Revolution took place in late 1977 and was a history-making event. There was no limit on the age and official educational background of examinees. The total number of candidate students for the national college entrance exam in 1977 was as many as 5.7 million, the admission ratio of 4.8% was the lowest in the history of the PRC, with only 272,971 students being admitted.

Starting from 1978, the examination was uniformly designed by the Ministry of Education and all the students across the country took the exact same examination. Later the ministry of education allow individual provinces to customize their own exams.Till now, there have been 16 provinces and municipalities adopting customized exams.

The National Higher Education Entrance Examination is graded variously across the country. It is arranged at the end of the spring semester and secondary school graduates across the country take the examination simultaneously over a three day period. Prior to 2003, the examination was held in July from 7 to 9, but has since been moved to the month of June. This move was made in consideration of the adverse effects of hot weather on students living in southern China and possible flooding during the rainy season in July.

Since 1977 when the Gao Kao was resumed after the cultural revolution, the enrollment has kept a steady increase year by year. In 1999, China started a great-leap forward in the higher education, aiming to offer higher eduction as a universal education for the public. That year, the enrollment in Chinese higher eduction institutions jumped by almost 50% from 1.08 million to 1.6 million. In 2008, the enrollment stood at 6 million, six times that of a decade ago. Accordingly, the admission ratio has kept rising. In 2011, the total number of admitted is planned to be 6.75 million, while the total registered participants stood at 9.33 million. Accordingly the admission ratio 72% has broken a new record in Chinese higher eduction history.

According to Chinese Ministry of Education, the coverage rate for higher eduction in China was 26.5% in 2010, which means more than one in four person aged between 18 - 22 are studying in higher education institutions. In 1977, the coverage rate was estimated to be slightly more than 1%. China expects the higher education coverage rate will be about 35% in 2015.

The number of registered parcipants in Kao Gao peaked in 2008 at a record 10.5 million. The number decreased then year by year thanks to China's rigid one-child birth control policy.

The respective number of participants, enrollment, and admission ratio since 1977 are listed below.

Year	Number of participants (10 thousand)	No. of admitted (10 thousand)	Admission ratio (%)
1977	570	27.3	4.79
1978	610	40.2	6.59
1979	468.5	28.4	6.06
1980	333	28	8.41
1981	259	28	10.81
1982	187	32	17.11
1983	167	39	23.35
1984	164	48	29.27
1985	176	62	35.23
1986	191	57	29.84
1987	228	62	27.19
1988	272	67	24.63
1989	266	40	15.04
1990	283	61	21.55
1991	296	62	20.95
1992	303	75	24.75
1993	286	98	34.27
1994	251	90	35.86
1995	253	93	36.76
1996	241	97	40.25
1997	278	100	35.97
1998	320	108	33.75
1999	288	160	55.56
2000	375	221	58.93
2001	454	260	57.27
2002	527	320	60.72
2003	613	382	62.32
2004	729	447	61.32
2005	877	504	57.47
2006	950	546	57.47
2007	1010	567	56.14
2008	1050	599	57.05
2009	1020	629	61.67
2010	947	657	69.38
2011	933	675	72.35

 

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