奥赛获奖取消保送资格

    Stephy Wong

    Nearly 70 percent of netizens at sina.com agreed with a new policy for college enrollment, saying it was unfair to recommend students who have won at Olympic science competitions to university without taking the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE).

    The Ministry of Education said recently that students who won prizes at national-level Olympic science competitions, such as maths, physics and chemistry, could only score additional points of no more than 20 in the NCEE. In the past, these students could be recommended to the country’s top universities without taking the NCEE.

    Only those who were recruited* into the national team could still be eligible* for the preferential* policy to go to university NCEE-free.

    Students who won prizes at national-level competitions for scientific inventions and environmental protection research also could not be recommended to university, the ministry said.

    A similar policy for students with special achievements in sport was also announced by the ministry.

    “It was an improvement in education,” a netizen, identified as his Internet name Lujianping, said. “It was fairer to most students. Many students waste their time on learning for the competitions, which was not at all useful for future study and work,” he said.

    “Some schools opened special classes for students, who were only trained to win competitions, hoping to recommend more students to key universities this way. It was not good for a student’s all-round development,” Su Yuandong, a teacher from Donghu Middle School in Luohu District, said.

    Zhao Xiaojian, an official with the admissions office of Huazhong Agricultural University in Hubei Province, also thought it was reasonable to stop recommending these students.

    “We enroll these recommended students every year, but we don’t find them particularly smart or do better than students who entered through the NCEE. It was also not fair for students from rural areas who had no chance to enter these competitions,” Zhao said.

    “But it would be a pity if talented award-winning students lost the chance to enter top universities. There are several of these students at my school and they are all very talented,” Wang Luodan, a Senior 3 student at Shenzhen Middle School, said.