A total of 10.71 million students have registered for China’s national college entrance exam, known as the gaokao, in 2020. Because of the coronavirus, the two-day exam has been pushed back a month to early July, the first time it has been postponed since it resumed in 1977 after being canceled during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). The Ministry of Education said the decision was made to ensure student health and stop the spread of the disease. By late April, at least 24 provinces and municipalities nationwide will have restarted classes for final-year high school students. By that time, the majority of students will have been taught online for two or three months. Against the backdrop of the digital divide between urban and rural students, it will be a challenge for the country’s rural examinees to compete with their urban peers who are more tech-savvy and have more access to computers and the internet.
Old Version
