COVID-19 adds to the stress of university entrance exams

The Washington Post 10 June 2022

Zhu Yongtao has spent more than a month locked down at his high school in southern China so he can take the biggest exam of his life. On Tuesday morning, under a light drizzle, he strode into an exam hall for the Gaokao, China’s notoriously gruelling college entrance exam, write Eva Dou and Vic Chiang for The Washington Post.

Under China’s strict ‘zero COVID’ policy, even a single positive case at a school could put everyone into quarantine. To ensure an outbreak wouldn’t derail college hopes, Zhu’s school and others across the country sealed themselves off weeks before the Gaokao, with students and teachers alike barred from leaving campus.

The pandemic has made this tough three-day exam even more challenging. This year, 120 students are taking the Gaokao in quarantine centres, and 700 students are taking it from some other sort of lockdown, according to Chinese publication The Paper, citing China’s ministry of education. Twelve coronavirus-positive students in Beijing, Liaoning and Sichuan are taking the test from field hospitals.
Full report on The Washington Post site

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