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Education system lacks human values

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-25 07:49

A 14-year-old boy froze to death in Weifang, Shandong province, a few days ago after a drunken teacher told him to stand in the open at night. The tragedy reflects the lack of humanitarian concern in our education system, says an article in Chongqing Daily. Excerpts:

Fourteen-year-old Zhang Jixin reportedly froze to death after his teacher ordered him to stand in the open air as punishment, forgot all about it and left him there all night. But instead of being sorry and ashamed of the tragedy, a school official said: "He died comfortably, without any pain."

A lot of people have become victims of the education system. According to several surveys, many teachers tend to choose rough and violent measures to deal with students. Zhang was one such student. He had to pay for whatever mistake he had committed with his life.

The tragedy reflects the lack of human values among teachers and their power to think about the consequences their actions might incur. In the exam-oriented education system, teachers and students both have become slaves of good scores, making basic humanitarian values secondary. This makes it impossible for students, who for long have obeyed teachers and officials without question, to grow up into citizens of a modern society with independent thoughts.

The lack of the most basic human values in the education system is evident in the official's remark that the 14-year-old boy "died comfortably without pain". It's high time we corrected the flaws in the education system to prevent such tragedies from recurring.

(China Daily 12/25/2009 page9)