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SPORTS IN THE LIMELIGHT: P.E. is in focus as it has been listed among college entrance examination subjects (XINHUA) |
Shandong Province in east China will begin to include physical education (P.E.) among college entrance examination subjects in 2012. This move has triggered an upsurge in participation in P.E. among middle school students in the province. P.E., which as a non academic subject not related to university admissions has long been neglected, has now become important.
Making P.E. a college entrance examination subject will encourage students to exercise to some extent, but it's very unlikely to reverse the deterioration in the physical fitness of Chinese students in the short term. For more than two decades, the physical quality of primary and middle school students has been in decline, with more and more of them being diagnosed as overweight and obese, and the proportion of shortsighted children has risen. P.E. has long been marginalized in middle schools, because students have more important academic work to deal with.
However, if students are not really interested in physical exercises, but are made to do it in order to pass examinations, they might become resistant to sports in general after the short-term training is over. In this sense, including P.E. in the college entrance examination is all right, but hopefully it won't become another burden on students.
Qilu Evening News
Han Changfu, China's incumbent agricultural minister, received three groups of farmers respectively from Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, who paid visits to the ministry to appeal for help. Han is the first minister of the 27 ministries under the State Council to directly meet such visitors. To meet common people appealing to higher authorities for help is the responsibility and obligation of governments at various levels. It's a constitutionally set right for people to pay visit to higher authorities when they have problems local authorities fail to solve. If governments and officials would not like to meet them, it's not only depriving them of legitimate rights and interests, but is also damaging the government's image. When the agricultural minister took the lead in meeting these visitors, he is actually setting up an example for other officials, particularly grassroots officials. More importantly, it's a strong support to the visitors. To meet or not, it's not just something about working style, but more importantly, it's about whether the officials really want to help the ordinary people.
Yanzhao Evening News
The China Software Testing Center issued the 2011 General Assessment Report on Government Departments' Websites on December 2. The report revealed that 79 percent of ministry websites, 87 percent of provincial government websites, 91 percent of prefectural government websites and 92 percent of county websites actually do not function. Most of these websites provide few services to the public with limited resources and outdated information. In the information era, government websites are already commonly used. There were more than 30,000 government websites under the domain name of gov.cn by 2010, said statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China. Websites with org.cn domains are approaching 50,000. Despite the huge quantity of government websites, the quality is not satisfactory.
These websites, which are supposed to act as a bridge between the government and the public, are just for show, causing a big waste of government resources. Numerous hotlines, websites and mailboxes are said to be available for the public to complain or express opinions to authorities, but how many of them are really functioning? Given the rapid technological development today, to set up such a direct bridge between the government and the public will not cost too much. It's as easy as to just to receive a letter and to have a look at visitors' comments. All that is needed is government officials really doing something tangible for them by offering them updated information and giving them timely responses. In that case, these websites will be real bridges, as it should be, between the government and the public.
Legal Daily
China has recently raised the poverty line from a net per-capita income of 1,274 yuan ($199) for farmers in 2010 to the current 2,300 yuan ($359). As a result, around 10 percent of China's population has fallen into the poverty category. However, this is a more reasonable proportion of poor population. We don't need to avoid talking about the rich-poor gap, but it's necessary to set up a bottom line for poverty so that poverty and the gap will not threaten social stability.
To set up a poverty line is not only to define the poor population group, but also to refer to it as a basis of welfare provision for the group. This line will also serves as a criteria for poverty reduction in a country.
Raising the poverty line will extend the social umbrella over more than 100 million Chinese people. This will help more people to benefit from social development achievements and also show the government's willingness to take on more responsibility for people in need.
Shanxi Evening News |
