Woman gets new shot at gaokao

A woman who was deprived of a college education 14 years ago because another student stole her identity will retake China’s national college entrance examination along with 9.4 million high school students on Wednesday.

Wang Nana, 34, said going to college was her lifelong dream.

“I just want to have no regrets,” the mother of two from Luoyang, Henan province was quoted as saying by chinanews.com. “If I fail this year, I may try again.”

Wang was accepted by Zhoukou Vocational and Technical College after taking the gaokao in 2003, but she never received her admission letter because it was intercepted by Zhang Yingying, who attended the college using Wang’s ID.

Zhang’s graduation certificate featured Wang’s name and ID number, and she used the qualification to land a job as a teacher.

Wang only learned of the identity theft by chance in 2015, after her application for a bank loan was rejected.

After extensive media coverage, which led to a police investigation, nine officials were disciplined last year.

Wang said retaking the exam will not be easy, as she also needs to take care of her children, but she chooses to see the silver lining.

“For the gaokao , I am positive and calm,” she said. “I hope my case will warn more people to focus, to avoid another ‘Wang Nana’ suffering again.”

About 3.72 million of the 9.4 million students are expected to enroll in undergraduate degree programs after the examination, an increase of nearly 10,000 over last year, according to the Ministry of Education.