Students set record as gaokao begins

Precautions include adding quarantine rooms, checking for fever to avoid spread of novel coronavirus

With parents, teachers and friends lining up outside test centers to cheer them on, a record 10.71 million students around China began taking the all-important national college entrance exam, or gaokao, amid the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday, after it had been delayed by a month due to the outbreak.

Students in most parts of the country will take the exam on Tuesday and Wednesday, while in some places that have undertaken gaokao reforms, such as Beijing, the exam will be held until Friday.

Measures are in place to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus during the gaokao, which will be the largest organized gathering of people since the start of the outbreak.

Students are required to have their temperatures checked before they can enter the test centers, and only those with temperatures below 37.3 C are allowed in.

Quarantine test rooms are available for students if they show symptoms on exam day, with each room hosting no more than four students, and each test center has at least three quarantine rooms.

Students and the 945,000 monitors are required to wear masks, though students in low-risk areas of infection can take them off during the test.

In Beijing, where a new wave of cases have been reported since last month, the number of students allowed in each test room has been reduced from 30 to 20 this year so that students can be kept at least 2 meters apart.

The test centers are using air conditioners to keep the rooms cool while also keeping windows open to make sure the rooms are ventilated.

Outside the test center at the Chaoyang School of the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, parents dropped off their children early in the morning, wished them good luck and waited outside the test center during the first 2.5-hour exam on the Chinese language.

Wearing masks and standing under trees or umbrellas, they seemed more nervous than their children as they chatted with each other to pass the time and exchanged tips about how to make sure their children can eat and rest properly during the four-day exam.