According to the Children’s Hospital of Tianjin, four or five schools have been arranging for children to have IQ tests in the hospital almost every day since the primary schools started to enroll students in early June. More than 10 schools have been involved so far and the best schools are involved as well as ordinary ones.

According to a doctor in the Psychology Department, many of the children who have been required by the schools to have their IQ tested are of normal intelligence. Most just ran into difficulty in the school interview.

All schools prefer to take in children with high intelligence and some of the best schools are unwilling to enroll children who do not have a high IQ. Doctors are put in something of a dilemma when parents put pressure on them to report higher scores to let their children go to the best schools.

Many parents say they are disgusted that schools resort so casually to IQ testing. “How can the school put children into different categories through a single IQ test?” said one parent, “My kid was very shy when having the interview because he had never been to kindergarten. The school required him of having an IQ test just because he could not answer a few addition exercises. It just makes things more difficult for the kid.”

What has given rise to this additional IQ testing in primary school enrollment procedures? According to insiders, it is related to an unprecedented drive in the last two years by parents seeking the best schools for their children. Some of the best primary schools are now facing a considerable burden placed on them through having too many applicants. This has led them to adopt various measures, including IQ testing, aimed at reducing enrollment pressure. At the same time, ordinary schools also want to improve the quality of their students through IQ testing.

But is this practice advisable? Zhang Jiaxin, head of the Children’s Health Care Institute of Tianjin, said, “IQ tests actually have their limitations. At present, there is no single IQ test that can adequately reflect the overall developmental level of a child’s intelligence. It is quite improper that many schools blindly follow what is really only a fad and require children to have additional IQ tests in hospital. It is inaccurate and harmful to determine a child’s future just through a paper based test."

Doctor He Xuexin of Tianjin Academy of Education Sciences said, “Human intelligence is multi-faceted and IQ is not the only thing that matters. IQ is a changeable measure and education will have a considerable influence on it. A high or low score may not always correlate well with a high or low intelligence. Factors other than intelligence will also have a significant influence on the outcome.”

The education administrative department of Tianjin is clear in its opposition to additional IQ testing being required by primary schools during enrollment. According to educationalists, it is every person’s right to go to school on attaining school age. Children whose intelligence is within the normal range should not be required to undertake an IQ test. In addition, it is known that both the content and method of testing will affect the result. The test is not reliable and a single test may not produce an accurate measure of the child’s IQ.

The result of an IQ test will bear heavily on that individual’s mind during the rest of his or her live. Students will lose confidence and may even give up studying. Therefore, the educational department has emphasized that it is inappropriate for primary schools to conduct additional IQ test in enrollment.

(china.org.cn by Wang Qian, August 16, 2002)