Gāokǎo, the College Entrance Examination

In August 1977, Deng Xiaoping, vice-premier in charge of culture and education, held a meeting with experts, including electrochemical scientist Zha Quanxing. Deng decided to resume gāokǎo that year at the meeting.

The resumption of gāokǎo after a decade-long suspension attracted more than 5.7 million applicants in 1977. The move reopened a channel for people to change their life and fate.

A poster for the resumption of gāokǎo in 1977. 

Many students who sat for the exam then later said the test changed their life forever. They said if it were not for gāokǎo, they might still be carrying bricks.

Many students enrolled to a class of the Radio Engineering Department of Tsinghua University in 1978, who have become government officials, leaders of national labs and elites of Silicon Valley, believed their fates changed because of gāokǎo. 

In 1977, the enrolment targets were workers, peasants, mountain going to the countryside and returning home to educated young people, rehabilitated military personnel, cadres and graduating students. The picture shows the 1977 freshmen of Beijing Normal University in March 1978.

Students of the Tsinghua University who having class in 1977.

In the spring of 1978, the first batch of freshmen admitted to Peking University after the resumption of gāokǎo.

Along with the resumption of the gāokǎo, China launched the reform and opening-up. The students enrolled by colleges and universities, considered the "God's favored one", were urgently needed for the country's reconstruction.

It is hard to overstate the importance of gāokǎo. Students at primary schools, middle and high schools across the country all spend years preparing for that one exam.

Gāokǎo helps colleges and universities choose right candidates who would be engaged in the country's reform and opening-up after graduation.

Deng Xiaoping and the first group of university students after the resumption of gāokǎo.

In May 1978, the opening ceremony of the Wuxi branch of Nanjing Chemical Engineering Institute was held.   

Gāokǎo has changed a lot in the past decades, such as the scores calculation, test subjects, papers and time. The changes reflect the development of Chinese social education concepts. Following the country's higher education reform in four decades, more colleges and universities were established; the admission rate has increased every year. This does not conflict with the selection of elites in the past through gāokǎo. China needs more talent, and gāokǎo is not aimed at blocking some from higher education but to find right students for colleges and universities.

Every summer, gāokǎo attracts people's attention. There are many special things prepared for gāokǎo, including special rooms, cakes, porridge, etc., which shows that parents and students take it seriously. People who are not students or parents also discuss the test papers in different provinces, regions and municipalities. Some even write articles on the exam.

China's rapid development has meant that people treat gāokǎo differently. gāokǎo is no longer the "single-plank bridge". Now, students use their gāokǎo scores to apply to foreign universities. Gāokǎo has started changing its past mode of deciding students' fates through a sole test. Now it comprehensively considers the quality of students in all aspects. Autonomous enrollment of colleges and universities is complement to gāokǎo.

The rapid development put forth new propositions. What kind of talent the era needs, how to realize the effective and rational utilization of educational resources, how to secure the education equality in rural and urban areas, eastern and western regions to the greatest extent? Being the powerful "baton," gāokǎo has to face the problems directly and give balanced answers.

Forty years have passed by in a flash, and some gāokǎo test-takers in the first batch are still working on their posts. How lucky China is, most of the gāokǎo test-takers in past 40 years are either still contributing to the country's renovation on their posts or preparing to make their contributions. Gāokǎo is still using its unique way to fuel the country's development.

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