A teacher encourages a student before she takes the gaokao in Beijing on Tuesday. (Photo by Zou Hong/China Daily)
Meanwhile, the attempt to move the students by bus failed.
An announcement from the local government, at around 10 am, conveyed the message that the first exam had been canceled, but said the other three would go ahead as scheduled.
Then, shortly before 2 pm, an announcement from the provincial education authorities said the mathematics exam had also been canceled because the waters had not receded. The two canceled exams are scheduled to take place on Thursday, the authorities said around 10 pm on Tuesday.
Wang said the students had been provided with psychological counseling to alleviate their stress at the most important moment of their education to date.
To guarantee that the second day's exams would go forward, the authorities said they had prepared a backup site and would decide whether to switch to that location early on Wednesday.
The National Meteorological Center issued an orange alert－the second-highest of the four-tier alert system－for rainstorms along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, with heavy downpours expected to hit the region from 8 pm on Tuesday to 8 pm on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, exams went ahead smoothly on Tuesday in Wuhan, Hubei, which was also affected by torrential rain. Teams of more than 2,000 rescuers and some 500 disaster relief vehicles were sent to assist the students. At a news conference it was announced that no students were late for their exams.
Previously, the annual gaokao has taken place on June 7 and 8, but the Ministry of Education decided to delay the exam this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
