Defend fairness of exams

DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT expectations of the annual national college entrance exams. But for students who sit the exams, high scores are solely what they expect or hope for. The fact that exam results will make a difference to their future, unless there is a reform to subvert its basic model, points to the stupidity of the argument that the current exams are the culprit for the country's lack of first-class scientists and thinkers.

Finger-pointing at the exam model has resulted in high-pitched demand for reform of the model, but it seems that very few know what kind of changes should be made to the current system, in which candidates' exam results solely decide which universities they will enter.

The autonomy some universities have been granted to enroll a certain percentage of students on their own, for the purpose of paving the way for a multiple means of college enrollment, has actually provided opportunities for rent seeking on the part of both the institutions of higher learning and those who can afford to buy their children's way into prestigious universities.