Extra exams hurt education fairness

HIGH SCHOOLS AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS, be they public or private, have reportedly been conducting unauthorized tests, most of which are about the Mathematical Olympiad, to select "qualified" applicants. Such a selective admission approach violates China's compulsory education policy that upholds indiscriminate recruitment, said Changjiang Daily on Wednesday:

It is a semi-open secret that many pre-college schools use third-party education agencies or conduct their own tests to clandestinely recruit young applicants. These tests are off the record and often cover subjects beyond the grasp of average students.

Such extra, selective tests are banned in compulsory education, which instead aims to ensure students automatically go to schools in their neighborhood. The implementation of the ban, however, has been porous, failing to stop top middle and elementary schools from arranging these so-called comprehensive capability tests.