The 2018 Gaokao (annual National College Entrance Examination) will take place on June 7 to 8 and a total of 9.75 million Chinese students would sit the exam.
In the recent years, the churches across China provide specific services for students who sit gaokao, China's national college entrance exam, like offering prayer, consulting, and psychological counseling.
On May 20 and 27, 2018, Beijing Chongwenmen Church held two counseling conventional events for students who would attend gaokao and zhongkao that normally take place in early June, the senior high school entrance examination. Educators and psychologists gave suggestions on questions like how parents should help children file for college application, building a good parent-child relationship during the exams, and how parents and children should overcome pre-exam nerves.
Two counseling activities are annually conducted before the two exams. Since 2010, ChangSha South City Church also hosts psychological counseling lectures every April and May.
Starting from the New Year's Day of 2018, Christians in Changsha North City Church of Hunan are in a prayer chain campaign that requires 16-hour prayer time every day. Recently, it adds a request for gaokao candidates on its prayer topics. In the past years, churches in Beijing, Jilin, and Shandong also prayed for students who took gaokao.
In addition to prayer and counseling, some churches render free resting places, accommodation, and water for students and their parents. Last year, a church in Shanxi used eight cars to transport students. Tea and printing services were also provided in a church in Fuzhou, Fujian.
- Translated by Karen Luo
