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Letters and Blogs
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-01 07:52 Let students make their own choices After the results of college entrance examination have been released, students begin applying for the majors and colleges according to their scores. Compared with the examination, the application of specific major and college involves a series of factors, which seems more complicated. It is not easy to make such a decision since there are myriad colleges in China with hundreds of majors. People always consider academic reputation, faculties and research facilities of the college as well as factors such as climate and location. It is a common sight in China that almost all the members in a family join in the discussion of a student's college application. In that situation, the adults' social experience and opinions tend to outweigh the students' own preference. Every year many students apply for several popular majors. In contrast to this competition, some majors that cannot lead to a well-paid job after graduation have few takers. In order to balance the enrollment among different majors, the Ministry of Education sets up the rule of enrollment adjustment. Students who failed to be admitted to their dream majors face another dilemma: either accept a less popular major or say goodbye to college life, which is a tough choice. Given the pressure of advice from family members and relatives, opinions of experts, the pressure of job market and government regulations, it is hard for the student to apply for a college on the basis of his own choice. That's the reason why we always hear of college students complaining that they are not interested in their majors. It is time we emphasized more on the students right to his choice of subjects in applying to a college. Liang Peng via Email Building the strong and the fragile The collapse of a 13-storey building in Shanghai reminds us of the story of a solid building in Wuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. In May, a 9-storeyed building in Wuzhou built in 1995 was to be demolished. After directional explosion, however, the building still stood upright. The demolition workers, using all kinds of demolishing machines, had to spend another 20 days to demolish the building. Many netizens dubbed it "Building the Strong" to applaud its good quality. Compared with that solid building, the fallen one in Shanghai may be named "Building the Fragile". It seems that the old building, despite its outdated appearance, is much more reliable and suitable to live in than the good-looking but fragile new building. Though building technology should have advanced since the 1990s, the quality of buildings has not improved along with it. Accidents in recent years, such as a collapsed bridge in Fenghuang, Hunan province, have revealed that corruption is one reason behind substandard building quality. We hope the investigation underway now would reveal those who are responsible for the collapse, and that the corrupt elements are severely punished. Liangjiang Jushi http://blog.huanqiu.com/?uid-55954-action-viewspace-itemid-252378 (China Daily 07/01/2009 page8) |
