Wang Ping (hunan.voc.com.cn): The dinner is inappropriate. First, those 19 students were invited to the dinner because of their rank in the examination, but ranking students after examinations is banned by education authorities. Second, the dinner was bought by the school. Educational resources are very limited and precious. Why should we waste it on a luxurious meal? Finally, why should they only invite students with good academic performance? What about students with good performance in morality, social manners and sport?

Differential treatment and dividing students with labels are complete discrimination. The middle school hasn't considered children's psychology and feelings. As a matter of fact, encouraging students can be done in much more meaningful and appropriate ways, such as organizing students to exchange study experiences or giving them books as a reward. It's totally not necessary to treat students with luxurious dinner.

Wu Jiang (chuzhong.eol.cn): "President's dinner" makes having a meal with the president a privilege and deliberately indicates the special identity of the president. It tells students that if you have a good academic performance, you will have a bridge to be connected with powerful figures. It's not encouragement but is misleading.

If a school really hopes to offer an opportunity for students to have dinner with the president, it can establish a system that students can voluntarily sign up for the chance after seeing the notice of the school. And the dinner could be held in the school dining hall.

Yu Yundeng (edu.qq.com): Private schools do have their own advantages and characteristics. Compared with public ones, they have more stress for students' academic performance. But this doesn't mean they can disobey principles of education. Praising and encouraging top students is right, but it should be conducted properly and with restraint. Overdoing it is not correct. This luxurious dinner is not necessary.

If there are similar dinners in the future, will the 19 students be the same as this time? If yes, then the encouragement policy has no effect because it hasn't successfully encouraged other students. If no, those who have been replaced will be very disappointed and frustrated. They may be unable to recover after the letdown, which goes against the original purpose of the encouragement dinner.

Ma Longhua (Beijing Morning News): The current education system in China pays too much attention to the result of examinations. In teachers' eyes, top students are more tolerable than others. Therefore, some strange phenomena have happened, such as the green scarf that an elementary school required students with poor performance to wear to distinguish them from top students, who wear a red scarf. It's apparently discrimination in the name of encouragement. We should be aware that any kind of discrimination and injustice will cause immeasurable harm to students' psychology.

When scores become the only criterion for schools to judge students' performance, there must be something wrong with the education system.

Under the current educational system, maybe the difference between top students and others can't be eliminated once and for all. But as educators, they should try their best to diminish educational unfairness rather than deliberately enlarging it.

Qian Guilin (www.chinadaily.com.cn): Elementary and middle school are an important time for children to develop their personalities. Educators are supposed to be good at inspiring students to find their interests and explore their originality, rather than building up a hierarchical system. The current fundamental education in China gives children more academic pressure than they can handle.

Does the president also have corresponding encouragement methods for other students? Students who are struggling in class need this kind of dinner as well or even more, but who is willing to offer it for them?

Li Kezhi (www.cnhubei.com): People have several questions about the luxurious dinner. First, who paid the bill for the dinner? The president says the school paid the bill but the school's money comes from all students. That is to say, the bill was also paid by students who couldn't enjoy the meal.

Second, if other students catch up or make great progress, should the president also treat them with a great meal? If so, it will be a big burden for the school.

Finally, how are those students selected? Is the process open and transparent? Has the standard for selecting students been under full discussion? Middle schools should be a place to cultivate and build up students' personalities rather than only focusing on results of examinations. Those 19 students shouldn't be selected with the only standard of academic performance. Other standards should also be taken into consideration or at least discussed by all students and teachers on campus.