Chinese students prepare for the Gaokao. (Photo/Xinhuanet)

A new reform plan for the gaokao - the national college entrance examination in China - has been promulgated. Students will now be allowed to choose three additional subjects as well as Chinese, math, and English. The new reform has echoes of the SAT and SAT2 exams in the United States. The standard of evaluation has become more comprehensive.

A long-lasting and severe criticism of the gaokao has been the irrationality of evaluating students only through exam scores. The key purpose of this reform is to resolve this problem. However, people will ask: Is the US college entrance approach applicable in China?

The answer is a definite NO for now.

In the United States, the SAT or ACT is not a recruitment test, but only a proficiency test. A student's performance at school is the core aspect under examination. Putting together his or her SAT score and specialties, a college or university will decide whether they will take the student or not. The key issue in this system is honesty. In the US, it is costly to lie or cheat in college recruitment. In China, the situation is quite different. In October and November this year, the College Board of the US twice delayed the reporting of scores for students from China and South Korea, concerned about possible cheating on the SAT in Asia.

Like other social governance systems, the college entrance system in US is also based on a culture of honesty and self-discipline, strict enforcement of law, and severe punishment, which are all still under development in Chinese society.

Not only the gaokao, but other social issues in China can also reflect the fact that China is not ready for unsupervised systems. For example, parking meters were imported to China a few years ago. A lot of big cities in China started to set up meters on parking lots. However, they did not last long since the management of parking meters is essentially based on people's self-discipline. Some experts in China promote the use of western ideas and ways of management to fix China's social issues, which is unrealistic, inapplicable and may even make them worse.

Reforms are necessary for a developing country like China. But only reforms that are consistent with China's national circumstances can make an actual contribution to the country. Blindly applying the governance systems of western countries will never be a cure for China's social issues. 

This article is edited and translated from 《美国大学的录取方式在中国不可行》，source: China Youth Daily, author: Cheng Zhiwu