取消特长生招生 (qǔxiāo tèchángshēng zhāoshēng): Cancel favorable enrollment policies for pupils with special talents

The Ministry of Education has issued a guideline that requires primary and secondary schools nationwide to further cut the enrollment quota reserves for pupils with special talents in sports, music or art. The favorable policies for such pupils are expected to totally disappear by 2020.

Providing favorable policies for pupils with such talents used to be a quite common practice among schools nationwide, because it allowed these pupils greater chances of sound education than their counterparts.

However, two unexpected things happened. First, many parents rushed to get training courses for their children so that they could perform better in sports or the arts and get more chances; Quite a high percentage of these pupils had no real "talent" and their better performances were simply the results of intensive training.

Second, certain local officials have the power of bestowing certificates on special talents, and some of them used this power for personal gain.

Both harm the fairness of the policy.

Of course, ending the policy does not mean discouraging pupils with special talents. They still have the chance of honing their talents at school.