The Shanghai Education Commission (SEC) will publish a list of government-recognized educational certificates and exams this year to stop students from signing up for exams blindly.

 

 

Children from a local primary school in Shanghai take part in a spoken English test.

 

"We're trying to limit the number of exams and free children from heavy study burdens," said SEC director Shen Xiaoming during the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference annual meeting. He said the SEC had already started preliminary studies on certificates and exams on the market.

 

To prepare their children for a good school many parents in the city send children to take various training courses and sit certificate exams. They attend math competitions, English language proficiency tests and computer courses.

 

A primary school student reportedly took home 41 different awards and certificates but he was still pushed to gain more. His parents insisted that the more certificates someone has the stronger ability the student demonstrates to enter a good school.

 

Shen said that "certificate-mania" wasn't only misleading but placed a great burden on children as well. Many parents weren't clear which certificates were useful. "We have to work out an exam guidance list to prevent those useless and burdensome efforts," he said.

 

However, teachers and parents remain skeptical about the list. Xiong Bingqi, a professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, said that it would be futile to prepare such a list if education authorities couldn’t restrain schools from admitting students based on certificates.

 

(Shanghai Daily February 1, 2007)