The Evaluation System for College Entrance Examination and accompanying Explanatory Notes have just been published by the People’s Education Press. Produced by the National Education Examinations Authority (NEEA), an agency under the MOE, the Evaluation System aims to answer three fundamental questions about the College Entrance Examination (CEE) in China: What is its purpose? What should it test? How should it be designed? These questions have a direct bearing on talent cultivation.

The Evaluation System specifies: (i) the CEE’s core functions should be to reinforce student moral development, facilitate talent selection and guide instruction; (ii) the CEE should test whether candidates have recognized the core values, acquired a good knowledge of certain subjects, developed key skills, and been equipped with the basic knowledge that is needed to pursue higher education; and (iii) it should be designed to encourage the acquisition of basic knowledge, and the development of interdisciplinary, application-oriented and innovative thinking skills.

The two publications are the culmination of three years of research by over 150 experts from five universities including South China Normal University and Beijing Normal University in accordance with the Implementation Opinions of the State Council on Deepening the Reform of Examination and Enrollment Systems. They offer guidance on how to further reform the CEE and education models at the secondary education level. By requiring the integration of moral evaluation in all parts of the CEE, the Evaluation System ensures that the CEE, as the major means of talent selection for the HEIs, facilitates quality-oriented education with the aim of training all-rounded talent. It enables a healthy cycle of enrollment, examination, teaching and learning where all stages are seamlessly connected and positively linked to each other.

The principles outlined in the Evaluation System have already been gradually followed in the design of CEEs in recent years, to ensure the stability of examinations. As a practical guidance for the reference of CEE designers, researchers, managers, teachers and students, the Evaluation System is an open and dynamic system, which will be continuously improved in line with new developments in basic and higher education and CEE reform.