Reform requires caution

After they learned on the weekend that 38,000 places from Jiangsu's quota for university enrollment will be given to high school graduates from provinces or regions with meager education resources, the anger some people in East China's Jiangsu province have expressed is understandable, as they worry it will mean their own kids will have less chance of getting enrolled in good universities.

Despite the promises from both the local and central education authorities that the enrollment rate for local students by universities will not drop this year, more needs to be done to convince local residents that the authorities are serious about what they say.

The move to give more university places to students from provinces or regions with fewer institutes of higher learning is a bid by the central government to promote education equality by getting all provinces and regions to more equally share educational resources.