Educators have called for a traditional Chinese student award to be abolished in elementary schools.

The "Three Good" student award is for outstanding students.

The suggestion was made at the Shanghai Education Forum where over 150 scholars and education experts have gathered to discuss educational development.

"In many places, the 'Three Good' award has been distorted and it has no meaning," said Gu Mingyuan, chairman of the Chinese Education Society.

"It is now only given to academic elites or obedient kids which I think has a negative impact on the majority of students," he said.

The award began in the 1960s and was meant to encourage balanced study, good physical condition and a positive personality.

The award is for all classes and less than 10 percent of students usually qualify.

Honored students usually have priority for admission to higher educational institutes.

They may also be granted extra score points in their school entrance exam, teachers said.

Academic grades account for about 70 percent of the award.

"I always did poor in my physical education exams but I was still lucky enough to win the 'Three Good' student every semester in primary school," said Chen Jia, a local student.

"Simply competing on academic scores only adds more pressure to students who are already overburdened with huge amounts of homework," said Gu with Chinese Education Society.

The latest survey by the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences indicates more than 60 percent of local pupils had to spend more than two hours doing homework everyday.

The survey estimated students were getting less than 9 hours sleep each night.

About one-third of the pupils said they were forced to continue studying on weekends and 77 percent often worried about their grades.

Gu said: "There is already an enormous amount of pressure on students to perform."

"Mediocre students consider themselves inferior and lose confidence because of the unreasonable amount of pressure on them," he said.

Zhang weijiang, director at the Shanghai Education Commission, also admitted at yesterday's forum that easing the burden on students is one of the biggest challenges facing the education authority.

"The key to a relax education environment is to encourage children to develop in different areas," said Zhang Hong, a local headmaster.

"This will protect them from getting hurt," she said. "As long as these types of awards and contests are there for students, there will be problems."

(Shanghai Daily May 24, 2004)