【英文報道】Faking an advantage

Repeated scandals about college entrance examination candidates getting extra marks for fake identity of ethnicity or fake athletic performance has put the policy on grill.

The exposure that many who get such bonus points are children from powerful or wealthy families points to the rampant abuse of power taking advantage of the defected policy.

Chongqing enrollment office still refuses to publish the names of those students who have obtained extra points for fake identity of ethnicity. This has enraged the public, and people have asked for disclosure of the detailed process of how the students cheated.

The policy for extra marks was originally designed to select candidates with talent in a particular field, and also to take better care of students from some ethnic minority groups. The policy was meant to make up for the deficiency of the unified national college entrance examinations in attracting a wide variety of students.

However, the policy of extra marks has turned out to be a channel for abuse of power, which is eroding the fairness of the national college entrance examinations and the very foundation of social justice at large.

An extra 20 or 10 points usually throw several hundreds of candidates behind or enable a candidate, who otherwise would have to go to an average university, to enter a prestigious one. The extra marks sometimes can change the fate of a student.

That explains why quite a number of officials push their children's career by using their clout for the bonus marks. So do some wealthy parents, who pave their way through with money.

In one of the scandals, of the 19 candidates who were awarded 20 bonus points for ship model performance in the city of Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, 13 are children of local government officials. In another case, 25 students,who faked their identity of ethnicity in the city of Shishou, are all from families of local government officials.

This type of cheating is even worse than the dishonest behavior in examinations. Tight supervision at examination sites can effectively prevent cheating in examinations. But this type of cheating is much harder to eradicate because the abuse of power is behind it.

In addition, the rampancy of such cheating is undermining the principles of social justice and fairness. Those who have no way to get such extra marks will likely feel justified to cheat in examinations, which they will consider as their own way to make up for their lack of power and money.

It is good that all officials involved in the scandal have been disciplined and students disqualified for enrollment because of their violations.Still it is high time that enough importance is attached to the damage that the abuse of power in this area has done and will do to the fairness of the college entrance examinations. The education authorities may have to rethink its policy for extra marks.

Probably the scope for the application of the policy needs to be greatly narrowed. At the same time, it must make sure that those who have taken advantage of this policy to push their children's career be punished.

高考考生假造少數民族身份或冒充體育特長生而獲得額外加分，這類丑聞近期頻頻爆出使這項加分政策遭到強烈質疑。通過媒體的曝光我們發現，很多獲得加分的考生都是來自有權勢或者有經濟實力的家庭，他們利用這項政策的缺陷來獲得加分。重慶市招辦依然拒絕公布由于民族造假而獲得加分的考生名單。這使得公眾非常憤怒，并要求公開這些考生假造身份的詳細的過程。

這項加分政策的初衷是遴選在某一方面有特殊才能的學生，以及照顧少數民族學生。這是為了彌補統一的普通高等學校招生考試的缺陷，吸引多樣化的生源。然而，這項加分政策卻變成了權力濫用的樂園，使高考的公正性受到影響，甚至侵蝕了整個社會的公正性。通常，20分或10分的加分可以使考生的名次提前幾百位，或者令一個本來只能進入普通高校的考生得以進入名牌大學。加分往往能夠改變一個學生的命運。這就是為什么一些官員利用他們的權力為他們的孩子獲得加分。有經濟實力的家長們也利用金錢來為孩子鋪路。

其中的一條丑聞是，在浙江紹興通過航模表演獲得20分加分的19位考生中，13位是當地政府官員的子女。另外一條丑聞是石首的25位學生假造民族身份，他們全部來自當地政府官員家庭。此類作弊比考試作弊更加惡劣。考場的嚴格監考能夠有效防止考場中作弊，然而這種作弊，由于其背后存在權力濫用，更難鏟除。另外，這種作弊的泛濫正在逐漸削弱社會的公平和正義。那些沒有門路獲得額外加分的考生可能會認為在考場中作弊是有正當理由的，認為這是彌補無權無勢的方法。濫用權力已經對或將對高考的公正性造成損害，我們要對此投以足夠的重視。

教育部門可能需要重新考慮加分政策。加分政策的適用范圍也許需要大大縮小。同時，必須保證那些利用這項政策來幫助他們孩子的家長們受到懲罰。
(chinadaily.com.cn; July 9, 2009)