Inside the Meeting That Changed Jiangsu's Gaokao

November 2, 2026 - 03:20

In 2018, education officials in Jiangsu sat down for a meeting that would reshape the futures of thousands of students. The subject was the gaokao, and the assessment was blunt. Officials acknowledged that the province's college entrance exam system had become what they described as chaotic churning, a phrase that captured years of frustration over shifting rules, unpredictable scoring, and a system that seemed to punish students for circumstances beyond their control.

The meeting was not merely a venting session. Officials laid out numbers that made the case for reform. Years of policy adjustments had produced confusion rather than stability. Students and families struggled to understand how scores were calculated, how subjects were weighted, and what the rules would be from one year to the next. The uncertainty weighed heavily on teenagers already facing enormous pressure.

What emerged from that room was a plan to restore confidence. The numbers presented that day became the foundation for changes that would eventually affect thousands of students across the province. For families who had watched the system shift beneath their feet, the meeting marked a turning point. It was a rare moment of public honesty about the flaws in a process that shapes lives, and it set in motion a decade-long effort to write a better answer for Jiangsu's students.