More than 10 million university hopefuls took part in this year’s gaokao, China’s national college entrance examination, which was just concluded yesterday. Without a doubt, the gaokao is always one of the highlights of the year in China.

But lately the 30-year-old gaokao system has been under increased calls for reform, with critics questioning its fairness.

In spite of its shortcomings, the fiercely competitive test, viewed as a make-or-break step for young peoples’ futures, is still one of China’s most fair means for finding and nurturing talented youth. The gaokao test is China’s great equalizer.

Over the past 30 years, the gaokao has come to be regarded as a chance for people to change their destiny, an opportunity to achieve boosted social status and a better standard of living.

We can’t just implement reforms of the gaokao in a haphazard manner. As Yale University professor Chen Zhiwu noted, “the poor social credibility and weak supervision of Chinese universities on their new students leads to difficulty in reforming the current gaokao system.”

Implementing reforms like evaluating students on their “overall quality” as opposed to a simple consideration of their test score would just create loopholes to be exploited by those with strong social connections.

One such loophole favoring the powerful already exists – an extra points system allowing students to boost their scores before even taking the gaokao by notching “outstanding” achievements in national and local competitions.

But everyone, regardless of wealth, education or social status, takes the same gaokao. It is the best chance for fair competition among students of all different backgrounds. When a student takes the gaokao, the only thing that matters is their individual ability.

Reforming the gaokao is definitely a necessary step, but it is important to bear in mind that any reforms enacted could be manipulated by powerful members of society for their own benefit. This would result in a gaokao system which is worse than what we have right now.

So the first thing to keep in mind when considering any potential reforms is safeguarding the test’s current fairness. Special interest groups must be kept from meddling in any reforms.

China’s overall development in the economic and social spheres must also be kept in mind when we think about reforming the gaokao.

We’ll only be able to call reforms a success if they manage to protect the fairness of the gaokao and better promote equality in educational opportunity for all Chinese students.