How “Gaokao” Reflects the Uneven Distribution of Educational Resources in China?
“Gaokao”, or the so-called National College Entrance Examination, is regarded by many as an important test that will determine young people’s future, though the competition is fierce in a country with such a large population as China.
There are significant differences in the amount of educational resources among provinces. In genaral, universities will leave more quotas for local students. If a student come from a region with a large number of prestigious universities, then he is lucky; otherwise, he is more likely to have to compete for limited seats at universities of other provinces.
The map above mainly demonstrates the comparison of the number of candidates who took “Gaokao” in 2020 by provinces. Henan Province in central China, shown in the darkest red, had the most candidates. In contrast, the western Tibet Autonomous Region, shown in the lightest color, had the fewest exam-takers.
Among the top 5 provinces, there was an astonishing number from Henan Province, which has surpassed the second place Guangdong Province by more than 30,0000 candidates.
The two provinces with the least candidates are Xizang(Tibet) and Qinghai, which have traditionally been sparsely populated. The other three, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, are municipalities with much smaller areas than other provinces and have correspondingly smaller populations.
Then let’s look at another map showing the number of universities owned by each province. Obviously, we can see that there are more universities in the eastern regions and less in the inland and western regions.
The top five provinces in terms of university number are Guangdong, Henan, Hubei, Jiangsu and Shandong, each with more than 100 local universities.
The five provinces with the lowest number are Gansu, Hainan Ningxia, Qinghai, and Xizang. Compared to Jiangsu’s 167 universities, Xizang has only seven.
The ratio of the number of universities to the number of candidates in each province can objectively reflect whether the educational resources of a province are sufficient.
A higher ratio means that local candidates can obtain more local educational resources, while a lower one indicates that the resources are relatively scarce.
From the data in the above charts, we can conclude that Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin are relatively rich in educational resources, while Henan, Guizhou and Guangxi are the most deficient in educational resources.
In 2016, China launched a plan to develop “Double First-class Universities”, which refers to the First Class Universities and Universities with First Class Academic Disciplines.
So far, the list has included 42 Double First Class Universities(36 Class A schools and 6 Class B schools) and 95 universities with first class disciplines. Let’s take a look at its geographical distribution.
Most of the “Double First Universitie” are concentrated in the eastern coastal areas, while there are only few in westen provinces.
Beijing and Jiangsu are the top two provinces with most Double First Universities. If we zoom out these two areas, we can see they are thickly dotted.
