Education summit examines AP system

A major summit was held in Beijing to "deepen the understanding" between education sectors in China and the United States.

Organized by the United States' College Board and hosted by Beijing Royal School, a private school in Beijing's Changping district, the Advanced Placement China Education Summit was held from Oct 17-20 aimed to "deepen the understanding between AP China education and US higher education".

The summit featured AP demonstration classes, panel discussions on AP courses and college admissions, as well as training for AP Chinese teachers and management staff. More than 300 participants from across the country attended the event.

This is the third summit with the previous ones held in Peking University and East China Normal University.

AP, a program in the US and Canada that offers college-level curriculum and exams to high school students, has gained increasing popularity in China in recent years.

According to Wang Xiangbo, vice-president of the US College Board, only about 2,000 AP exams were taken in China before AP was formally introduced in April 2010. Now it is the biggest international program in China and, since 2012, is the second largest in the world.

"Last year, more than 180 schools in China offered AP courses, and 10,247 students completed 37,151 AP exams in China," Wang said.

Beijing Royal School is one of the earliest schools in China to offer AP courses and exams.

Wang Guangfa, principal of BRS, said they started to offer AP courses in 2006, but only a small portion of their students chose to take them and they only had three AP subjects to offer.

"Now, 95 percent of our students take AP courses and they can choose from 21 AP subjects," he said.