There's more to life than the gaokao

(ECNS) -- China's national college entrance examination, the gaokao, will be held from Friday to Sunday, and it has millions of youngsters filled with a mixture of dread and anticipation.

A lot is on the line. The exam is the only way into a Chinese university, and many students view it as a "life-or-death" moment -- a single chance to escape a life of limited means.

In recent years, however, the number of candidates taking the exam has dropped continuously. The gaokao is no longer the go-to option for a growing portion of Chinese students, just as going to college is no longer a guarantee of success in life.

Big changes

Every year as the country plunges into three days of "gaokao fever," traffic controls are set up around exam sites and cities issue strict ordinances to prevent honking and construction noise.

Students have been told to prepare for this moment throughout high school, and often much earlier, so their concentration must not be broken.

The test is preeminent to families across China, especially in rural areas, as it is thought to be the one and only opportunity for children to gain access to the upper rungs of society.

But the gaokao is gradually losing its omnipotence: official statistics say the number of candidates to take the exam declined from 10.15 million in 2008 to 9.15 million in 2012, almost a 10 percent drop, despite the rapid expansion of private higher education.

More and more students and their parents are realizing that such an overriding emphasis on getting into a top-ranked school may be misguided, at least when it comes to getting jobs in China.

Since barriers to admission were reduced in 1999, the number of students enrolled at universities in China jumped from 1.08 million in 1998 to 2.75 million in 2002, and has steadily increased since then. Moreover, the college admission rate for those who took the gaokao this year was above 75 percent.

This shift has driven ever-increasing numbers of new graduates to enter an already congested job market, creating a whole new pressure zone.

Disillusionment

The number of candidates taking the gaokao in some rural areas has dropped by 30 percent, according to China.cnr.cn.

A teacher named Kong at Sanshan High School in Fujian province says the majority of his students choose to earn money in big cities after finishing high school, as it is not easy for them to enter college.

"Many teachers used to persuade students to take the gaokao, but now teachers understand when kids choose not to take it," Kong says.

Wang Weimin, the schoolmaster at a rural high school in Anhui province, says the number of gaokao droppers has been increasing every year. "Rural attitudes toward the gaokao have changed, and people don't pin as much hope on higher education."

Many rural parents worry their children may not find jobs even after graduating from college, pointing to the gloomy job market and massive number of graduates. To make matters worse, many college graduates earn less than migrant workers.

Among the new graduates who did find employment last year, 69 percent started out making less than 2,000 yuan (US$322) per month, while migrant worker salaries rose significantly to 2,290 yuan, according to figures from the State Statistics Bureau.

Chu Chaohui, a researcher at the National Institute of Education Sciences, points out that Chinese universities have been losing the power to change the lives of their students.

"The imbalanced distribution of educational resources between urban and rural areas also puts rural students at a disadvantage," he says.

In 2010, rural students accounted for 17 percent of the total number of students at Tsinghua University. And the number of rural students attending Peking University has dropped from 30 percent to 10 percent over the past 20 years, according to reports.

As for emerging private colleges that enroll students regardless of gaokao scores, rural students often turn them down because of high tuition fees and low employment rates after graduation.

Bridge widens

Meanwhile, as many students target opportunities abroad, failing the gaokao is no longer perceived as a precursor to a hard life.

A study by an international education company found that 41 percent of about 3,000 parents plan to send their kids abroad right after high school. The first choice for most of those parents is the United States.

It was once a prestigious choice for rich parents to send their kids to foreign universities. Now, parents and students are more concerned with the practical effects, says Henry Chang, president of the Chinese Educational Development and Cooperation Association (CEDCA).

CEDCA research shows that the number of high schoolers in Shanghai to pursue overseas higher education increased sharply from 2011 to 2012.

These trends are playing out not only in Shanghai. In northeast China's Liaoning province, all 60 members of the international section of the Liaoning Provincial Experimental High School received offers from foreign universities last year.