Students hold banners saying, "I rule my gaokao with fighting spirit," in a pep rally at Hengshui No 2 Middle School in North China's Hebei province, Feb 26, 2014. [Photo/icpress.cn]

The majority of high school graduates have to pass the national college entrance examination to enter college, but there is small quota for those performing well in high school to be recommended for direct admission. Reports, however, say the majority of the recommended students in many colleges are children of senior officials who have not performed well in high school. Comments:

That officials' children are recommended to colleges has long been an open secret, but supervisors have always turned a blind eye to the corrupt practice. The reason: the supervisors are education department officials who collude with other department officials to cheat the public. External disciplinary supervision is needed to curb this.

Zhang Ming, a professor at Renmin University of China, via Sina micro blog, May 14

Regulations demand that colleges make the recommendation process transparent, but in reality the information they choose to publish is always incomplete. For example, they don't reveal the recommended students' family backgrounds. Power exercised in darkness breeds corruption; this applies to colleges too.

Fan Xianzuo, a professor of education at Central China Normal University, May 14

Some of the criteria for recommending excellent students are outdated. For example, in the 1980s, students who had command of a foreign language could enter college without taking the entrance exam because the country needed a large numbers of foreign language speakers. Now we have many such students, but the recommendation criterion remains. It is necessary to do away with some of the recommendation criteria.

Zhang Caisheng, executive dean of Changjiang Educational Research Institute, May 14

The dirty business of recommending officials' children to colleges thwarts ordinary students' prospects, because for every official's child recommended an ordinary student is denied the opportunity to succeed. It is such privileges enjoyed by officials that arouse people's anger and disrupt social harmony.

scol.com.cn, May 14

The corrupt practice of recommending students is likely to continue for more than one generation. When children of corrupt officials are recommended, they get the first taste of abuse of power. If such students become officials themselves with their parents' help in the future, won't they indulge in corruption, too?

Procuratorial Daily, May 14