The GAOKAO is here. These three days in June torture 9 million High School students across China. The Gaokao tests the students in all areas of the curriculum. During these three days the whole country slows, building work ceases, air traffic is diverted and traffic quietens down. Well, that’s the idea but the signs outside Jinling School today asking drivers not to use their horns, didn’t seem to make any difference.
I thought it would be good to take my camera for a walk to Jinling High School and see the hoards of parents waiting outside the gates for their child to emerge. Your Gaokao score determines which university you can go to. The higher your score, the better the university and the better your chances of a job.
Now that families only have one child, the exam is even more important. The hopes and dreams of parents and grandparents are borne on the shoulders of that one 18 year old and his Gaokao score. It’s a huge pressure for them to bear and drives some to suicide.
It’s a HUGE security and logistical operation involving lots of different agencies and millions of people in China.
Today outside Jinling School the police and their computers were there to do crowd control, the trafiic police slowed the cars down, the security guards were there (don’t know why!) and there were lots of small companies promoting their products and courses and giving out freebie fans.
The idea is to keep the area as quiet as possible so the students could concentrate on the exam. The parents stood round chatting to each other and laughing, waiting for 5:30 to come round so they could spot their child coming through the gates. Then I saw them – the TV crew from Jiangsu TV – and they were heading straight for me! Heeeeelp.
I greeted them in Chinese “Ni Hao” and then the interview started. I was ok on “Where are you from?” and “How long have you lived in Nanjing?” and “Where do you work?” because I am asked that every day by everyone I meet. But after these familiar questions I was struggling. I tried “I really like Nanjing” as I thought it was better to say something rather than “I don’t understand” but I’m sure it wasn’t the answer to the question.
My “Nanjing is better than Shanghai” was well received by the crowd who laughed in agreement.
The time had come to grab the friendly policewoman I had been chatting to earlier and she gave some help with the difficult questions.
“What did I think of the Gaokao?”
“I think it puts a lot of pressure on the students”.
Most of the crowd which had, by this time gathered around me, nodded in agreement.
I continued, “In the west, we do ‘A’ levels which is the equivalent exam, but the students do not study as hard as the Chinese.”
They liked this so I continued. “After the ‘A’ levels, the parents do not stand and wait outside the gates to take their children home. The students usually leave school and go with their friends and drink a lot of beer”. They didn’t laugh!
I can’t remember any of the other questions but I remember thinking “I wish I wasn’t wearing this sweat-soaked over-sized grey polo shirt and pink jeans”.