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Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
World

China's entrance exam gets less competitive as more teens opt to skip university

Parents wait for students behind a police line during the annual national college entrance exam, or "gaokao", at a high school in Shanghai on June 7, 2023. (Photo: Reuters)

China has reported a second consecutive decline in the number of students sitting the country's national university-entrance exams, as a graduate jobs crunch leads many teenagers to decide against pursuing an academic degree.

A total of 12.9 million students have registered for this year's National Higher Education Entrance Examination - known as the gaokao in China - down 450,000 from a year ago, according to data from the Ministry of Education released on Wednesday. In 2025, the number of sign-ups fell by 70,000 compared with the previous year.

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