China may include questions on core socialist values in future national college examinations, also known as gaokao, an official from the Ministry of Education has said.
Gaokao should guide students to distinguish between socialist core values and Western ideologies, and test questions need to reflect the progress made in the political to technological fields, Guangzhou Daily reported Thursday, citing an article written by Jiang Gang, director of National Education Examinations Authority under the Ministry of Education (MOE).
In the article published by the semimonthly magazine China Higher Education, Jiang said subjects like Chinese and politics are better in testing core socialist values, as the latter can "penetrate socialist core values education into test questions to improve their judgment and strengthen faith in socialism ideals with Chinese characteristics."
The article discussed how the exams should test students' knowledge of socialist core values, innovation, rule of law and traditional Chinese culture.
Specifically, it said that geology exams should guide students to focus on "major geological problems" during China's modernization efforts and global development, while questions on history can "demonstrate the superiority of China's socialist rule of law."
Jiang's article is believed to be an indication of future gaokao reform, as the government vows to establish a new gaokao system by 2020.