Some 6 million students took the nationwide college entrance exams across China and everything progressed in an orderly manner despite the disruption caused by the SARS epidemic.
July used to be called “Black July” in China because senior high school students had to go through the turmoil of the yearly nationwide college entrance exams. Beginning this year, the exams are held in June to avoid the mid-summer heat. The regular national event is special this year not only because the number of examniees is 850,000 more than last year, but also because the nation is standing vigilant in its battle against SARS. Jiahe County in Hunan Province resumed its right to administer the exams two years after the public cheating event. People are wondering how things will be going there and in China as a whole.
The college entrance exams have long been regarded as a significant factor that determines a student’s future development. It’s even considered one of the turning points in their lives. Students and their parents are equally anxious for the result of the exams and choose the schools that they long to attend. We wish each and everyone of them good luck.
The examinees of Jiahe County from Hunan Province publicly cheated while taking the national college entrance examinations in July 2000. Two years later the provincial education department reinstated the county’s right to administer the local college entrance exams. Today, everything is going orderly in the same examination site. In Jiahe No.1 middle school, a special electric monitoring system was installed to supervise every exam room.
“Every surveillant is responsible for supervising certain targets and exams. We have a responsibility system for them to keep records of the whole process and then sign their names to show that they are responsible,” said Zhang Zhihai, director of Education Bureau of Jiahe County in Henan Province.
Jiahe County drew lessons from the incident of public cheating on college entrance exams and tightened discipline over every kind of exam in schools. Proctors for all exams have to be trained according to the requirements of the entrance exams.
“Strict training is carried out for proctors for every kind of exams in accordance with requirements for college entrance exams, whether finals or unified tests. This is so even if I am the proctor. The department in charge of the education bureau is responsible for the training,” said Li Renfei, proctor of Jiahe No.1 Middle School of Hunan Province.
“These exams have become for us a process to tighten discipline training for one thing, and a process to systemize and regularize exam discipline for another,” Zhang Zhihai also said.
Before the nationwide college entrance exams this year, Jiahe County held systematic training for proctor candidates. They had to take exams as well before they could be chosen for the job. And each proctor had to sign a responsibility contract with the education department.
“We have our special situation in the county. It is small and people are closely related to each other. But we have one rule over exams. No previous notice is allowed. The problem is that the proctors should be able to reject any intercesion. We’ve said that those who dare not do so would lose their job,” said Zhang Zhihai.
In Beijing, over 80,000 examinees were registered for this year’s college entrance exams, an increase of 13 percent over last year. The exam sites were also increased from a total 90 in the past to 212 this time due to the rise in the number of examinees as well as the need to control SARS. Special circumstances this year imposed special requirements on the working staff.
“The college entrance exams were held under the circumstances of the SARS epidemic. The first thing was how to prevent the disease from spreading. We have taken a series of measures and emergency plans in this regard, so if any thing occurs during the exams it will be properly handled,” said Xian Lianping, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Education Commission.
“We feel strongly obligated. In line with the unified layout of the Education Ministry and the overall requirements of the Beijing municipal committee and government, we set our aim to ensure two key points in organizing the entrance exams. One is to ensure the health and safety of all examinees and the working staff, the other is to ensure the seriousness, justice and fairness of the national exams,” said Wang Jian, president of Beijing Institute of Examinations.
To ensure the safety, health and punctuality of the examinees, Beijing allocated 280 special buses to pick them up.
“For the problem of getting to the exam sites, we encouraged the examinees to go on foot, ride bicycles, take private cars or buses if convenient. In addition, we arranged sepcial buses for those who live far away from the exam sites and don’t have other transport means. We opened 150 routes and 280 buses,” Xian Lianping also said.
The examinees had to go through a very strict examination process even before they could enter the exam room.
“The examination went very well today. It is apparent that the students were well prepared, so that there was not much problem with the health certificate. The students’ body temperatures were all normal. If there was any problem, it would be the fact that some students forgot to fill in their temperature on the health certificate. They should have done that at home this morning. But some students didn’t fill that in, so we took them to the school clinic to take their temperature for them,” said Wang Minzhu, vice principal of Affiliated School of Renmin University.
In case anything out of the ordinary occurred, the Beijing Emergency Center sent out a dozen emergency cars to patrol among all exam sites. And each site was equipped with medical equipment and workers. Some other alternate exam rooms were reserved to handle any emergency at each exam site.
“We are proctors of the alternate exam rooms. The situation is very special so we are here to get ready. The alternate exam rooms will be used in case of emergency, and we will rush to our post in that case,” said Tian Peng, invigilator of Affliated School of Renmin University.
A special bus for entrance examinees arrived early at the exam site in the Haidian District. Only one student stepped off the bus, and she is the only examinee here. Those living in quarantine areas or who are under quarantine but have no symptoms took their exams at isolated exam sites. Students were sent there with special buses and special personnel.
“Eight seats were arraged in one classroom, while other exam rooms normally hold 20 students. This exam room is well ventilated on both sides with ample light and electric fans so that the examinees won’t feel the heat or get nervous. Examinees can feel relaxed taking the exams here,” said Lian Jie, head of Isolated Exam Site in Haidian District of Beijing
In the isolated exam site in the Haidian District, the security line became a warm passage. These were all made by teachers here.
“Everything was well prepared. And the teachers are all very warm-hearted. I don’t feel nervous. It’s all very good,” an examinee said.
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