Resumption of national college entrance examination

In 1977 China restored the national college entrance examination, which had been suspended for 10 years due to the Cultural Revolution. This put the education of its youth back on track.

When a forum on science and education was held in August 1977, the attendees all asked for an immediate resumption of the national college entrance examination. They received support from Deng Xiaoping who presided over the forum. In September, the Ministry of Education summoned a meeting on college enrollment and decided to restore the practice of selecting college students through a unified national examination. On October 12, the State Council issued a document that allowed workers, peasants, educated youth, ex-servicemen, officials and senior high school graduates to take the examination if they met the requirements. The entrance examination was conducted the following winter, and the freshman semester began in spring. More than 5.7 million people sat the national examination and 273,000 were enrolled.

The resumption was a prelude to China's reform and opening up. It changed the future of several generations, and laid the intellectual foundation for China's development and economic lift-off. Higher education returned to normal, and compulsory elementary education received due attention. Skilled workers and professionals urgently needed in all fields of work emerged in large numbers.

恢復高考

1977年，由于“文化大革命”的沖擊而中斷了10年的中國高考制度得以恢復，中國的人才培養重新步入了健康發展的軌道。1977年8月初，鄧小平主持召開科學和教育工作座談會時，與會者紛紛主張立即恢復高考，得到鄧小平明確支持。1977年9月，教育部召開全國高等學校招生工作會議，決定恢復已經停止了10年的全國高等院校招生考試，以統一考試、擇優錄取的方式選拔人才上大學。當年10月12日，國務院批轉教育部《關于1977年高等學校招生工作的意見》規定，凡是工人、農民、上山下鄉和回鄉知識青年、復員軍人、干部和應屆畢業生，符合條件均可報考。1977年高考招生考試在冬季進行，新生第二年春季入學，有570多萬人參加了考試，當年全國大專院校錄取新生27.3萬人。

高考制度的恢復，奏響了改革開放交響曲的序曲，不僅改變了幾代人的命運，尤為重要的是為我國在新時期及其后的發展和騰飛奠定了良好的基礎。高考恢復使中國高等教育重新走上正軌，基礎義務教育逐漸引起重視，國民經濟各行各業急需的大批專業人才和知識精英才快速涌現。