LI SHIGONG

Three years ago, He Daye, a middle-ranking official in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, changed his son's ethnic status from the majority Han to the Tujia minority, in hopes that his son could get extra marks on the national college entrance examination. He was taking advantage of a state policy that allows ethnic minority students to add an extra 20 points to their original scores on the exam.

He's son, He Chuanyang, had his faked ethnic status revealed on the Internet, after he scored the highest mark on the arts sector of the exam in Chongqing this year. He had to pay painful price for his father's fraudulent actions. Under pressure from intense public criticism, Peking University and the University of Hong Kong, both of which He had been eyeing, announced they would not be taking him.

According to disciplinary measures issued by the Ministry of Education, Chongqing's education authorities also decided on July 18 that He and 30 others who were found to have falsified their ethnic background for extra points in the college entrance examination were deprived of college admittance. At the same time, He Daye was fired from his government post.

Although there are enough legal regulations that support the current punishment levied against He, there is still heated debate on the way this case was handled. Some argue that, with or without the extra 20 points obtained through the faked ethnic status, He is still the top scorer in Chongqing this year, so he benefits nothing from the preferential policy. Besides, it is He's parents who faked their son's ethnic status when he was only 14 years old, so he is innocent, and thus to deny his enrollment is unfair. An teenager deserves tolerant treatment so that he has an opportunity to correct mistakes, they say.

However, others insist that the increase in fraud during college entrance examination is the result of tolerance and connivance. If even those caught faking information are let off scot-free, then it won't be long before other systems collapse in the college entrance examination and even in the whole Chinese society.

Make a change

Xiong Bingqi (Oriental Morning Post): Those who want to punish He Chuanyang's parents and to deprive him of his college admittance actually want this issue to be dealt with in strict adherence to relevant regulations, which state that students will have their examination and admittance qualifications cancelled if they falsify their ethnic status.

To adhere to the law is good. The question is, first of all, whether relevant regulations are unquestionable. As for the disciplinary measures issued by the Ministry of Education in May 2009, which are widely considered as a legal basis for punishing He, I'm afraid the regulations on the deprivation of students' examination and college admittance qualifications are inconsistent with constitutional provisions on citizens' basic right to education. As a result, the punishment is unreasonable.

It is He's parents who changed his ethnic status when he was only 14 years old, three years before the disciplinary measures were issued. This incident reflects the urgency in reforming the current enrollment system.

Zhang Yongqi (Today Morning Express): What needs to be done is to find out the original reason why so many students including He Chuanyang have had their ethnic status changed and, on this basis, fill loopholes in the college entrance examination system. This will prevent similar cases from recurring. However, He is only a teenager, so it's inhumane to be too critical. He was top scorer in the college entrance examination without the ethnicity reward. It's unfair to downplay his academic achievements just because of the fake ethnic status and it's also unfair to label him as immoral because of this incident and to deprive him of college admittance. If he is ruined by this scandal and thus misses the opportunity to go to college, the authorities and the public are going too far.

Huang Shuo (www.jiaodong.net): First, we may get indignant at He Chuanyang's speculative practice and think a severe punishment is a must. However, if we look back at the whole issue, we'll find that it is not He who makes the public angry but his father who took advantage of his official post to fake his son's ethnic status.

It's often said, "Old sin makes new shame." Actually, when such a tragedy occurs, apart from involved individuals, maybe the public needs to take responsibility. If the public does not give those who make mistakes another chance, then this is not an open society that puts people first. Besides, He's father has been removed from his post and his mother, also a civil servant, has been suspended from her current post. This is a warning to those who are planning to do the same thing.

We should not be too severe to the young student. He needs an opportunity to correct the mistake and start over. For the public at large to develop a healthy psychology, tolerance is very important. We must be especially tolerant with those who have made mistakes.