Parents see off their children in Maotanchang township, Lu'an, Anhui Province, as the students leave town for the city to take the gaokao, or national college entrance examinations, on June 5. The Maotanchang Middle School, dubbed the "gaokao factory," saw 13,000 students sit gaokao this year. Photo: CFP

Hidden in the deep mountains of Lu'an, Anhui Province, is a school with a secret recipe for success. Maotanchang Middle School has a near-legendary reputation in China as the "gaokao factory."

For the past four years, Maotanchang has seen more than 80 percent of students passing the national college entrance examinations - gaokao - enrolled by undergraduate universities. Provincial figures, meanwhile, have rarely risen above 40 percent.

Preliminary statistics this year suggest that this extraordinary trend will continue, with more than 10,000 of its total 13,000 students passing the benchmark score for colleges. Throughout the year ahead of the exams, Maotanchang students barely enjoy access to mobile phones, let alone Internet, nor any portable electronic devices that might be used for entertainment. The semi-militarized high-school life eventually pays off when the letters arrive with results.

More than 500 kilometers away, meanwhile, most of the students at a Shanghai middle school have been holding college entrance letters for some time. At Shanghai Foreign Language School, only 35 out of its 235 graduates bother to sit gaokao this year.

Half of the remainder have been admitted to overseas universities. The others have been recommended for leading domestic universities without even the need to sit gaokao. For the 35 examinees, the majority already have extra bonus points or have secured a pre-admission quota except two.

"The closest I got to the gaokao was when I saw off my classmates at the gate of our school to take the exams," said Zhang Yulan, a student from the school who has been admitted to a foreign university.

This broad gap between the two schools illustrates the huge and growing disparity between divergent approaches to achieving the best possible future for China's children. Some attribute it to a matter of wealth (training and studying abroad cost several times more than for domestic colleges). Others believe it is more of a "vision gap."

Life-changing lessons

Since the exam system was restored after the Cultural Revolution in 1977, gaokao has long been the way - the only way - to access higher education in China. The grueling ordeal is widely regarded as key to a decent or well-paid job, and high social standing. Only in recent years has any shift in perception occurred. According to the National Institute of Education Sciences, around 1 million high-school graduates sidestepped gaokao in 2013, a number which has been growing by some 100,000 annually since 2010. Studying abroad is believed to be only one cause.

Yet in the small town of Maotanchang in Lu'an, gaokao fever seems to be as unwavering as ever. Located in the town center, controversial Maotanchang Middle School has been the subject of intense debate, as it is alternately mythologized and demonized. Every year, more than 10,000 students participate in gaokao, an amazing figure compared with the hundreds normal for an average high school.

The township, covering an area of 35,000 square meters, has just over 5,000 registered residents. The crowds come from Anhui and around the country, and a huge proportion are failed graduates from previous years. In 2014 for example, more than 8,000 of a total 13,000 had previously failed gaokao or scored unsatisfactorily before.

These returning students' gaokao scores can be raised by an average of 100 to 150 points after a year of training at Maotanchang. "It's often said that by scoring [just] one point higher, a student could probably beat 1,000 other competitors. For an exam-oriented education system, this school is a great success," said Li Mingzhi, a teacher from a leading middle school in Hefei, provincial capital of Anhui.

But as far as gaining an all-round education is concerned, Li said the school is a loser's game. "The latest reforms encourage students to get more actively involved in social activities and public welfare projects, and propose that they be evaluated in multiple aspects instead of gaokao scores alone," she explained. "But when it comes to the education authorities' evaluation or the public recognition of a school, college enrollment rates become what they pay most attention to. Parents are more interested in how many of your graduates get admitted into top-notch universities than extracurricular events."

Maotanchang is a traditional, albeit exceptionally strict "crammer" school,  adhering to the philosophy that, as Li puts it, "qualitative changes only occur when there is a certain accumulation of quantitative changes."

Students reportedly study for at least 16 hours a day. To create a "beneficial" environment, all entertainment facilities, from KTVs to Internet bars, are banned from the town, whose entire economy hinges on the school being a successful gaokao boot camp.

"Gaokao is, without question, the only way to change [my son's] fate," said Zhang Ximei of Shucheng county. "I don't want him to stay with me on the farm, or become a migrant worker in some big city, making a living from  temporary jobs for the rest of his life." Zhang suspended her small business and rented a 30 square-meter room at Maotanchang, at a cost of 3,500 yuan ($560) a month - exorbitant by any rural standard - to accompany her son as he retakes the gaokao.

Students at Maotanchang are considered "exam machines" churned out by a gaokao factory. Chen Hao from Grade 12's Class 90 does not resent the comparison. He has no choice but to score highly in gaokao for college, he explained. "How can I demonstrate so-called 'comprehensive qualities' if I look for work with simply a high school diploma?" Chen told the Shanghai Morning Post.

Students and parents in this small town view gaokao as their only reliable shot to effectively lead the family to a better future. Every year, hundreds kowtow and burn incense in front of a famed 100-year-old tree nearby, praying for better luck in their exams.

Evolving awareness

For at least one group of parents in Shanghai, however, the fiercest battle to secure better futures for their children takes place much earlier - when their children graduate from primary school. Many hire foreigners to tutor their children in oral English one-on-one prior to an interview by Shanghai Foreign Language School.

"The school is reputable for its 'happy' educational philosophy," chirruped Zhang Jing, whose 12-year-old son was admitted this May. "At the same time, it guarantees better chances for getting recommended into leading domestic colleges, or getting enrolled by quality overseas universities.

"Gaokao is our last resort if he fails to get admitted to [either]," she added.

Rumors describe entry as a bloody fight in which only families with certain wealth or backgrounds are eventual winners. A teacher from the school admitted to the Global Times that it is true that almost all their students come from families "with strength." The teacher, who insisted on anonymity, said traditionally the school has more recommendation quotas than others in Shanghai where it's a growing trend that students seek higher education abroad.

"Some move abroad after finishing the second year here. Gaokao has never been on the agenda for many of the students here. The choice has a lot to do with a family's vision," said the teacher.

"Our students are facing a growing variety of choices and opportunities," said Zhao Bingshen, who oversees graduate classes at Shanghai Foreign Language School. "But the demand on their comprehensive abilities is actually getting tougher, which is a challenge to our education."

The mother Zhang said she didn't believe that scoring high in gaokao proves a child's capabilities at all. "On the contrary, I'm afraid that [China's] exam-oriented education could ruin my child's creativity or damage his interest in studies. So I'm keen on providing a pleasant and inspiring learning environment for him."

Giving up on gaokao doesn't happen only in elite schools. The citywide figure on students sitting gaokao this year fell 1,000 from last year to 52,000, even though nationally the number is up 270,000 from 2013.

Gu Xiaoming, a sociology professor with Fudan University, said that the drastically different attitudes towards gaokao have a close relationship with the status of local economic and social development. "In some big cities, parents have a more in-depth understanding of gaokao. They have figured out its inappropriateness and regarded gaokao only as an option. But most Chinese parents continue to blindly follow suit," Gu said. "Although I have to admit gaokao is a comparatively fair selection mechanism. These exams are still of vital importance to most Chinese families."

Gu said that coming to a more objective understanding of gaokao doesn't necessarily mean that a family must be wealthy. "Some families in Shanghai work hard to pool money to pay for their children's education fees abroad. Fundamentally, it's about awareness. This has a lot to do with the level of development in a city. In Shanghai, local people's visions are definitely broader than those from smaller places."

However, policy advisor and fellow Fudan professor Ge Jianxiong believed that going abroad is also a trend which many have begun following blindly. "Chinese parents don't necessarily know these foreign schools well enough. They sometimes have no idea of what their children are up to either," Ge told a meeting of national policy advisors in March.

With continuing calls to reform the country's gaokao system, a few provinces have launched their own pilot programs. In Zhejiang Province, 34 universities started to take high school academic performances into account this year, and grade student interviews. In Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, gaokao results now count for only 60 percent of the final score at the South University of Science and Technology of China.

Professor Gu believes comprehensive reform to the gaokao system will take place very soon - maybe even within the next two years. "By that time," he pointed out, "schools that have carried out exam-oriented education, and students who have prepared hard in an ocean of exercise for years, could find it very tragic."