Jiangxi to abolish senior high school entrance exam in 2021

Eastern China’s Jiangxi province will abolish the senior high school entrance examination in three years, and enrollment will be based on proficiency tests in designated subjects, according to the provincial education authority.

Students to be enrolling in junior high school this autumn will be the first to carry out reform in Jiangxi, an official from the education authority said Tuesday at a news conference on education reform.

The proficiency tests will cover 13 subjects, including Chinese (120 points), mathematics (120 points), English (120 points), morality and law (80 points), history (80 points), geography (50 points), physics (85 points, including 5 points for lab experiments), chemistry (75 points, including 5 points for lab experiments), biology (55 points, including 5 points for lab experiments), physical education and health (50 points), information technology (15 points), fine arts (qualified or not) and music (qualified or not).

Students will be tested in the subjects at the end of the academic year.

Items giving students bonus points have been canceled, such as “excellent students," "good merit students" and “prize winners of all subjects,” and these will be recorded to a comprehensive quality evaluation system.

Jiangxi's reform is part of China's deepening educational reform to ease students' academic burden and change the mindset of "studying for tests".

In September 2016, the Ministry of Education issued a guideline to push forward the reform of senior high school enrollment.

The guideline encourages local authorities to combine the senior high school entrance examination and proficiency tests in subjects and pay more attention to develop overall student quality.

Some places have followed the guideline to carry out reform, such as Shanghai municipality, South China's Guangdong province and East China's Zhejiang province.