Devil finds homework for kids' hands

With the new school session approaching, students who have not completed (and perhaps even not touched) their homework have found an easy solution to their problem: using the Internet to get their homework done for a certain price. "Two yuan ($0.33) per page, 10 yuan for one composition, 30 yuan for a hand-drawn newspaper..." The prices seem affordable and tempting to students fretting over unfinished homework.

Chinese students are punished all the time for not doing things that they are least interested in. A look at the standard summer holiday homework would reveal that a lot of it is dull and redundant. For example, some require students to translate ancient Chinese passages into modern verse while others ask them to give their afterthoughts about a number of classic novels.

Teachers (and parents) have turned summer holidays, which should be a time of joy, into a burden for children by overloading them with assignments. If the examination-oriented system is a must because of the limited educational resources and the huge population, the summer vacation is a desperately needed break from studies for students to pursue their hobbies and broaden their horizon. If a summer vacation is simply an extension of the drudgery students are subjected to in schools, why call the two months a "holiday"?