Selecting students with specialities harms the fairness of compulsory education, says a signed article in Beijing Youth Daily. An excerpt follows:

 

According to laws and regulations, students should enter schools near their homes and there is no need to take an entrance examination for compulsory education. But the imbalance of educational resource distribution and the complexity of the education system have made middle school enrollment a battlefield for parents and students.

 

Media reports show that the situation is severe as this year schools in Beijing were allowed to select students with specialties. Many parents lined up at school gates early in the morning and students held bunches of prize-winning certificates for key schools' selection. And most parents worry about the fairness of selection.

 

The examination-oriented educational system forces students to enter the leading middle schools to improve their chances of entering top colleges. Furthermore the quality educational resources are concentrated in a few good schools while the quality of many more schools is not satisfactory.

 

Students have to accumulate "capital" to be selected, which greatly burdens them and harms their healthy growth.

 

To implement the policy of "entering the nearest schools without examination" is the way to simplify this vast project but it is not easy. The educational departments should promote a series of measures as well as issuing temporary bans.

 

The system of selecting students with specialties should be abolished in compulsory education nationwide. A timetable is needed for this.

 

The biggest challenge for the educational department is to balance the resources for compulsory education through innovation.

 

(China Daily May 16, 2007)