CROWDED HOSPITALS: The short time doctors spend diagnosing patients is leading to an increase in medical accidents (PEI XIN)

Popular Majors No More

China recently issued its first blue paper on employment. Based on 218,000 valid questionnaires returned by college graduates in 2008, the blue paper says that students majoring in law, IT, English and international trade accounted for the largest portion of those who remained unemployed six months after graduation last year.

Today 80 percent of China's 2,000 or so higher learning institutions offer English programs, while IT and law programs are available in 70 percent and 60 percent of them, respectively. When establishing these majors, many colleges did not take into full account probable changes in the job market. This shortsightedness has resulted in these majors going out of favor.

Worse still, some colleges do not work hard to improve the teaching quality of these popular majors, but keep on expanding enrollment. As a result, a lot of graduates are unable to meet employers' needs and become increasingly uncompetitive in the employment market.

College graduates currently account for only 5.18 percent of the country's total population, or a quarter of developed countries' average level. Therefore, to prevent an employment crisis from hitting college graduates, the key is to base college programs on actual needs in society instead of temporary popularity.

Guangming Daily

Public Not Culturally Involved

China celebrated its fourth Cultural Heritage Day on June 13. The Ministry of Culture sponsored a themed exhibition, while local governments across the country held activities to enhance people's awareness of cultural heritage preservation. The government has done a lot for this purpose. However, what we want to see most is the active involvement of the public in this campaign. Only when the preservation of cultural heritage becomes part of people's routine and is cherished by children, can we fully appreciate the value of our brilliant ancient civilization in this modern age.

For example, some traditional cultural rituals will be better preserved if the public is encouraged to participate in the ceremonies. But nowadays, most activities marking the Cultural Heritage Day are sponsored by governments at all levels. The lack of public participation makes it difficult for such activities to have lasting effects.

We are not doing the heritage preservation work for the sake of preservation. Cultural heritages are this nation's cultural memory and cultural identity. In order to better preserve our cultural achievements, we need to feel their existence in our daily life.

The Beijing News

Rapid Diagnosis Means Profit

According to a nationwide sample survey, physicians only give patients an average of 19 seconds to explain their ailment in many Chinese hospitals. Any longer and doctors appear impatient, interrupting patients and dishing out prescriptions.

In many medical institutions, it's medical equipment, instead of doctors, that are checking patients' illnesses. Whether it's necessary or not, doctors ask patients to go through various machine-based examinations. The more examinations patients undergo, the more profits hospitals and doctors can make.

There is another reason for the 19-second time limitation: the shorter a doctor's consultation with a patient is, the more patients he or she can see. This also means doctors can make more money.

Recent years have seen a huge number of medical disputes, many resulting from misdiagnosis. Given the average 19 seconds' diagnosis time, the tense relationship between patients and doctors is not groundless. Focusing on big profits is already one of the major causes of medical accidents in China.

Dazhong Daily

Why Are Buses Burning?

On the morning of June 13, spontaneous combustion caused a new bus in south China's Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, to burn to the ground. Thanks to timely evacuation, no one was killed or injured. This bus was put into service last December and is still under warranty.

The June 5 bus blaze in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan Province, which killed 27 people and injured more than 70, is still a fresh memory. Only eight days after the tragedy, Shenzhen saw a bus burning. Since there are still nearly 40 buses of the same model serving the public in Shenzhen, people are eager to know their safety conditions.

In general, new buses, especially ones that are used less than half a year, are unlikely to burn on their own, even if it is a very hot day. What is the problem? The purchase and daily safety examination of public transit vehicles must be very carefully done. Otherwise, it is showing indifference toward public safety. The frequent bus blazes, however, throw people into doubt about the quality and safety of the public transit system.

After the bus blaze in Chengdu, local residents called on the government to closely monitor the process when public transportation companies buy their vehicles. By doing so, it's hoped that similar bus fires will not occur again.

Yangcheng Evening News