Students appearing for gaokao decline in 13 provincial areas

In China, millions of students sit for the highly-competitive national college entrance examinations, better known as Gaokao, which is deemed as the gateway to prestigious universities across the country.

However, a new report released five days ahead of this year’s exams, shows a decline in the number of students appearing for the annual examinations in 13 provincial areas.

Among them, Beijing, northeastern China’s Liaoning Province and the eastern Jiangsu Province, have seen record low numbers, according to the report by China’s education information portal Eol.cn on Wednesday.

Every year, an estimated nine million students appear for Gaokao.

FEWER SCHOOL-AGE STUDENTS

The decreasing, according to the report, is partly contributed to the low number of school-age students.

Official statistics show that China’s birth rate has continued to drop since the 1980s – when the country started to implement its one-child policy that lasted for decades and was scrapped this year. Experts say this has resulted in the decrease in population of today’s high school students.

RUSH TO STUDY ABROAD

The mounting attraction of overseas universities is also putting strain on that number.

In 2015, over 523,000 Chinese students left for foreign universities, and many of them were for undergraduate courses. 

The United States, one of the most sought-after countries among Chinese study-abroad students, received more than 124,500 undergraduate students from China between 2014 and 2015, according to the latest US Open Doors report. That was a 12.7% increase year-on-year.

The current trend has become more appealing to students who prefer to bypass the rigorous study regiment for Gaokao. In the 1970s and the following years, many Chinese students went to the US for a master's or doctoral degree.

But many say not everyone has the will or the wealth to finance an international education. The annual income for a Chinese individual roughly ranges from 39,000 yuan (5,900 US dollars) to 62,000 yuan (9,410 US dollars), according to the official statistics from 2015.

“It’s common that affluent families will send their children abroad for study nowadays as diplomas from common Chinese universities are becoming less competitive in the job market,” commented a user named @Shajialu on Weibo.

And experts in this field say this is where Chinese universities need to step up their strategy. 

Chen Zhiwen, chief editor of Eol.cn, said many universities in China are relatively new, and many Chinese people believe that foreign education offers more value and future opportunities. 

“Over half of Chinese universities have a history of less than 16 years and there is still a long way to go to improve quality,” Chen told Xinhua News Agency. “Amid the severe competition from their overseas counterparts, Chinese universities need to take more urgent methods in order to improve competitiveness."