'Sudden change' adds to entrance exam anxiety

When most candidates completed the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, on Wednesday, more than 2,000 others from Shexian county, Anhui province, were only halfway through their papers.

Heavy flooding triggered by torrential rainfall meant the exam, which has a significant bearing on students' futures, was seriously disrupted in the county.

On Thursday, the Shexian students completed their Chinese-language and mathematics papers, two days later than their counterparts nationwide.

The Ministry of Education said on Wednesday morning it had given approval for the county to hold the delayed exams the following day.

Backup exam papers, prepared every year to the same standard and with a similar degree of difficulty as the original ones, were taken by the Shexian students.

Since 1978, when the gaokao was reinstated, there has only been one similar incident.

In 2006, when severe flooding hit Jian'ou, a county-level city in Fujian province, local authorities were given approval to delay the two-day examination by six days. Originally scheduled for June 7 and June 8, the gaokao was taken on June 13 and June 14. More than 4,000 students were affected by the delay.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year, the ministry decided in March to delay the gaokao by one month.

The father of a student in Shexian, who only gave his surname of Tong, said his son had not been unduly affected by the delay, adding, "However, I do know that some of the students were unhappy with the sudden change."

Yang Jianxin, a mathematics teacher from Jian'ou, witnessed the flooding in 2006.

On Wednesday, he told China National Radio that the backup papers in Jian'ou were just as difficult as those intended to be used originally, as he had seen both.

As his school is located in a rural area, to sit the exam, the students had to take buses to the county town early in the morning with their teachers, including Yang.

As the 300-plus students and the teachers were on their way, they were halted by a landslide that had engulfed the road.

Although the bus drivers tried to take alternative routes, they found these were blocked by flooding.