Record number of students begin taking China’s gaokao national college exams

A record 12 million Chinese students have started sitting the 2022 national college entrance exams known as gaokao. Before testing began on June 7, 2022, some schools had offered psychological counselling hotlines for students and their parents to help them cope with stress and anxiety related to the notoriously challenging exam. The country also continues to battle its worst outbreak of Covid-19 in two years, and as officials pursue their “dynamic zero-Covid” policy, even students in quarantine are being accommodated.