Gaokao Essay

Every year, 9 million students all over China take a single test, the gaoko, over the course of several days.  This test determines where the students go to college, eventually their life, and the success of their teachers.  In preparation for the test, many high schools become places of cram memorization and strict punishments.  The gaokao is unreasonable because it puts so much pressure on students and teachers.

One reason the tests are unfair is that it turns schools into sole test preparation.  School's go to extreme measures to keep up their student's good grades.  The article, "China's Cram Schools, by Brook Larmer, states that, "Critics say it stifles creativity and puts excessive pressure on students.  Teenage suicide rates tend to rise as the gaokao nears.  Two years ago, a student posted a shocking photograph online: a classroom full of students all hooked up to intravenous drips to give them the strength to keep studying."  Schools focus more on protecting their reputation than an educating, stimulating environment.  By having the gaokao be worth so much in terms of a teacher's success it affects their goals in helping the students.  The article states that, "teachers dole out lessons, and frequently punishments, with military rigor; their jjob security and bonuses depend on raising their students' test scores."  Teachers loose sight of working towards their students improvement when they are constantly trying to help their selves.  The gaokao causes schools and teachers to have the wrong intentions as educators.

Another reason the tests aren't justified is that the test determines whether they become successful or a manual laborer.  Many of the students in the "cram schools," have parents who hope for their children's lives to be better than theirs were.  The article states that, "The rent on their tiny room was high, rivaling rates in downtown Beijing, and it represented only part of the sacrifice Yang's parents made to help him become the first in his family to attend college.  Yang's father is a peach farmer in a village 45 minutes away; his mother quit her garment-factory job to support Yang in his final year of cramming."  Parents risk everything in hope of their children doing well on the gaokao.  Also, the students fear a life of poverty and manual work if they fail the gaokao.  The article states that, "The boys knew that manual labor would be their fate too, if they failed to do well on the gaokao.  Yang and Cao would have to join the ranks of China's 260 million migrant workers, who have left their homes in rural China in search of construction or factory jobs in the nation's booming coastal cities."  After all of their preparation, the boys either get into a school that will put them on the right track for a life of education and hopefully prosperity or they will end up as factory or construction workers.  A single test that occurs once a year determines the life of the 9 million student that take it every year.

In China, millions of people are affected by the gaokao every year.  Unlike the ACT and SAT, which offer chances for make ups and redoing it, with opportunity's for economic success  despite failure on the test, the gaokao is the sole determiner of success.  Because of the pressure on it the gaokao leads to uncreative schools and stressed students hoping to live up to their parents expectations.