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As the annual gaokao period begins this morning, kids this year are not only faced with the pressure of the exams but also the added pressure of COVID-19. Gāokǎo (高考, literally “high exam”) is a university-entrance examination taken at the end of high school and can be described as the Chinese equivalent of the American SAT, Baccalaureate exams, or British A-Levels.The annual gaokao period usually lasts between two to three days in early June, but was postponed this year due to COVID-19, and will now take place over four days. Approximately 10.71 million teenagers across China will embark on the most stressful four days of their young academic careers.
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To ensure the safety of the students, the National Health Commission announced a series of strict prevention measures that were implemented at testing sites this year. Firstly, all students and staff were encouraged to start monitoring their body temperatures 14 days leading up to the exam, and as with most venues in Beijing, temperature checks will be taken again upon entering the testing site. When it comes to personal protective equipment, students in medium and high-risk areas are required to wear masks at all times, even during the exam, but masks remain optional for students in low-risk areas. Each testing site has been required to set up isolation rooms in the event that any person present begin showing signs of fever or respiratory symptoms.Extra police and security have been allocated to the testing sites around the city to ensure the safety of the students and Wang Hui, a senior official with the Ministry of Education has assured the public that the COVID-19 preventative measures will not disrupt the gaokao’s strict no-cheating policy.The gaokao is not a matter to be taken lightly. Students and kids caught cheating in the exam face jail time, and for many, the results determine their academic careers for life. One hotel located within walking distance of a gaokao testing site in Dongcheng District has reported parents checking into hotel rooms with their children for the past week, in preparation for the gaokao exam. “We want to be close so the testing site in case there’s traffic in the morning,” one mom tells us. Some parents have even gone as far as to consult fengshui consultant on the layout of the hotel room – anything to give their kid a leg up on the grueling exam to come.
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Photos: nytimes.com, Unsplash