Rural Education Dilemma

Oriental Weekly

June 17

Over the past decade, some local governments merged dispersed rural primary and middle schools into bigger, single facilities to reduce costs and improve management. However, such moves have raised plenty of controversy.

Local governments have defended their actions as part of a campaign aimed at providing improved education to village children, enabling them to access better teachers and classrooms. However, many villagers disagree, concerned with the safety of their kids walking to distant schools.

If local governments had taken convenience into consideration when launching the campaign, the current problems would have been prevented. In addition, villager opinions were not respected during the decision making process. If representatives were allowed to join in the discussions, questions regarding school buses, boarding and teaching quality could have been fully addressed.

Behind Corruption Case

Caijing Magazine

June 17

China's former railways minister Liu Zhijun stood trial on June 9 on charges of bribery and abuse of power. His case has not only proved the defects of power.

First, Liu took advantage of his position to help a businesswoman named Ding Yuxin reap a profit of 3.98 billion yuan ($647 million). The latter subsequently gave Liu 49 million yuan ($7.9 million) as a reward. Second, from 2003 to 2009, Liu had maintained improper relations with many women, three of whom were hired by Ding. Whether this can be recognized as a kind of bribe and therefore a crime, is another question.

Psychological Health of Students

People.com.cn

June 25

A 20-year-old girl who committed suicide after failing the annual college entrance exam has attracted considerable media attention across the country. In order to ensure a good future and reward her parents' love, the girl chose to retake the exam after failing it last year. However, this time, she failed again by 6 points, and ended up cutting her wrists and drinking pesticide.

The tragedy has once again underscored the importance of the psychological health of students, without which the most dazzling diplomas are meaningless. Although emphasis repeatedly falls on psychological development, many teachers and parents succumb to the pressures of college entrance exams at the expense of mental health. Many schools blindly pursue admission rates into higher institutes, seldom paying attention to the mental stability of students. As a result, our children have little basic emotional control skills.

According to the UN World Children Report, 20 percent of all children suffer from mental illnesses. In Shanghai, in particular, about 5.85 percent of kids have considered suicide at some point.

It is essential to include mental health development in our education to guard against such tragedy.

Microblog Rumors

Beijing Times

June 26

The Blue Book of New Media, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) on June 25, has revealed that over one third of the 100 hot topics on twitter-like microblogs last year include rumors..

In an era where anyone can be a news emitter on the Internet, questions have been raised as to whether people are ready to be critical in the face of embracing such large quantities of information.

The Internet is like a double-edged sword. On one hand, it enables people to enjoy the freedom of communicating and sharing information; on the other, it inevitably helps spreads false news.

For instance, Chinese consumers flocked to buy salt after rumors spread that sea salt would be contaminated by the nuclear meltdown in Japan after the 2011 tsunami. In addition, people fled their homes at midnight after learning via microblogs that an earthquake might hit some cities.

It is no secret that rumors can have dire consequences on social order. While it is not always easy to uncover sources behind false information, the CASS report shows that even many VIP-class microblog users have had a negative effect on society by unintentionally spreading rumors.

Internet users should be more cautious and rational in dealing with unconfirmed information. What's more, the country should establish laws and mechanisms to tackle the challenge of rumors in a suitable fashion.