Should students get paid for good grades?

Editor's note: A private high school in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, offered a total of eight million yuan (US$1.2 million) to freshmen who did well on exams, triggering heated online discussions. Some Chinese parents use monetary rewards to help their children get better grades. Is giving cash for grades good or bad? Forum readers share their opinions.

mbursian (US)

Another reason for parents to ride their kids 24/7... If there isn't enough pressure to do well in school. I taught at Phoenix Union High School (Arizona, USA), a poor inner-city school, in the early 80's. The school board was considering paying the students minimum wage just to attend school. The school was federally funded because the student body consisted entirely of 'at risk' Black and Hispanic students... the funding was based solely on enrollment figures. The school was hoping to reverse the dropout rate and gain more funding. One of the main reasons students would drop out was that they were forced to work to help support their parent(s) and siblings. Teachers were forbidden to fail any student or give too low of grades... basically all the student had to do was show up to class and occupy a seat.

Chinese students take part in the first examination of the national college entrance exam, also known as gaokao, at a school in Guiyang city, southwest China's Guizhou province, on June 7, 2014. [Photo/IC]