Underachiever Discrimination

Teachers of Dongguan Huizu primary school in Henan Province, China, asked the underachievers to pretend to be ill in order to “escape” from District uniform examination assessment.

Li crying for the whole day, made his mother Ms. Li quite worried. “I tried to ask him, and he told me that because he didn’t do well in past exams, his teacher asked him to pretend to be ill. It’s ridiculous!” The mother of the 11-year-old boy still couldn’t help being angry.

As Ms. Li said, it’s not the first time that her son’s teacher asked him to cheat, and other students who didn’t have good marks in exams were required to do the same thing. “It’s the District uniform exam. If pupils don’t do well, it will bring bad effect to the teachers’ reputation.” said Ms. Li, with extreme furious, “I think my son has the right to take the exam, no matter how he does it.”

Well, it sounds to be quite absurd, but still ordinary in China, where exam-oriented education system takes the leading position, although government always emphasizes the importance of education for all-round development. I think it’s a meaty theme for study and debate.

To be honest, when I was a pupil, I didn’t need to take any exams since I did well enough in during-semester tests. (That’s our school’s encouraging policy for hard-working students.) I used to wish if I could escape from all the exams, it would really be the most fantastic thing in the world. But oddly disappointed feeling came up when I saw others taking exams, because I think, I lost the chance of taking exams.

Now just come back to the issue. First of all, taking examination is students’ right, obviously. Depriving of it, I mean in such a situation, it will be kind of esteem detriment. It doubtlessly must make Li feel seriously frustrated and heart-losing. You know it’s always not very easy for children to rebuild self-confidence. Here is a picture showing that a boy wanted to jump from the building to commit suicide because the teacher’s words hurt him(from Information Ontimes in China).

Secondly and importantly, it’s cheating. In order to deal with the assessment of education, teachers made a choice of telling lies, which surely set a bad example to children. The reputation of themselves, and the prestige of school, both will be elegant reasons. But, if teachers were cheaters, what would the children think?

Then a problem has arisen. Why are the teachers so anxious about the marks of students? The answer is that education evaluation department assesses teachers work by their students’ mark of exams. Using this ruler, can the result of assessment come up to the education evaluation department’s expectation? I believe not.

Blaming on teachers too much makes no sense, I think, because both students and teachers are the “victims” of exam-oriented education system. It’s necessary for teachers to treat every student on an equal footing, and more pressing issue must be adjusting the education evaluation criteria practically. A relaxed education environment surely makes students more comfortable.

Don’t worry if you are not a top student in class, Bill Gates either.

Dangerous Excitement

Pan, a 17 teenager committed suicide because of fruit machine casino in Suzhou, China


Pan thought he lost 100,000 Yuan(about £6,700 ) after several months’ spilling money gambling game. Then he decided to kill himself.

Remaining roast eggplant, a bottle of agricultural chemical, and a post named “suicide note of complaints” on BBS became the only things he left to his family.

What I can see is a heart-stricken father, holding his son’s picture, whose tears were exhausted. “I really hope that my death can arouse the boss of fruit machine casino playing centre and punish them.” Pan must be shouting from his heart at his last time, but he still could not have any courage to face his live.

Pan disclosed that near Hualian supermarket there was a fruit machine casino playing centre, which made him homeless and dare not go to school. Leaving his father’s phone number, he made a choice of suicide. Hence, the tragedy.

21st September 2007, 3000 fruit machine casinos were crushed down by Beijing Public Security Bureau; from July to September of this year, Tianjin Public Security Bureau investigated and captured more than 550 fruit machine casinos; city Yangpu destroyed more than 800 fruit machine casinos during June......Government took actions, obviously.

Destroying the machines is absolutely necessary. Please allow me just narrow the main issue to problem of teenagers. So, another significant thing must be giving a guide to the young people. Since immature, they are easily affected by others and indulging themselves to something, which they consider as very new and exciting. Then it’s possible for them losing their bearings. And even, one pit-fall leads to endless misery and regret. That is an old Chinese saying.

Government, society and family are obliged, and imperative to create some opportunities to enrich young people’s life of the mind. Especially the government, opening some camps of science or society,for example, will be helpful, and of course, free is best, because in China, many family still can’t afford the camp fees, especially the migrant worker’s family as Pan’s. That’s why Psychologist Ms Sudan Xu stated, as the background of family, pan must easily welter in unhealthy games, such as gambling, which I think, is really a dangerous excitement.

Eventually, “Life is valuable. But life belongs to us only once.” I am sure most of us know it thoroughly. Pan could choose between death and bravely facing reality. Unfortunately, he made such a decision.

I would always like focusing teenager’s problem because I think, to some extent, (maybe) to be a little bit exaggeration, it has respect to the future of a country. In my opionion, it’s difficult for a country to be stronger and have a prosperous prospects in the furure if it never follows adolescent education closely.