The Economist.
For decades, the Gaokao, China's university entrance exam, has run on a simple promise.
Study hard, score high, and your future is secured.
Last week on Drum Tower, we heard from students putting in that work,
determined to hold up their side of the bargain.
But as China's economy fluctuates, the reward on the other side is looking less certain.
Increasingly, students aren't just talking about how to survive the exam, it's about what comes next.
Does the Gaokao still reward merit regardless of background, or has the game changed?
And does China need to rethink the testing system altogether to help the young thrive?
In part two of our series on the Gaokao, we put those questions to people
who have watched China's education system from the inside.
I'm Jiehao Chen, The Economist China researcher, and I'm joined again by Mark Johnson,
our former China correspondent, who now writes about education around the world.
This week we're asking, is the Gaokao still fair?
And in a changing China, is academic excellence enough to secure a bright future?
This is Drum Tower from The Economist.
Hi Mark, welcome back to Drum Tower.
Hi Jiehao.
I bet you're just as anxious as the rest of our listeners to find out the answer
to the maths question we posed everyone at the beginning of episode one.