ON NOV 20, Shuren Middle School in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, held a ceremony to bestow bonuses on those of its students who performed well in high-school entrance exam. In all, the school gave out bonuses totaling 8 million yuan ($1.16 million), with the highest award 100,000 yuan. Southern Metropolis Daily commented:

It is, of course, normal to offer some material encouragement to students. However, the amounts awarded students by Shuren High School were simply too high. The average monthly income of employees in Shanghai, a municipality near Wenzhou, is only slight more than 8,000 yuan. In other words, a student in Shuren High School received the same as many people make toiling for an entire year.

The too high bonuses distort the purpose of learning and cultivate a kind of blind worship of money in young minds.

Besides, by providing such high bonuses Shuren High School is suspected of engaging in unfair competition. The schools in the city have long been competing to recruit the best middle school graduates, and if one of them competes by offering large amounts of money, that might be unfair for others that can't.

Some also accuse Shuren High School of using the awards for publicity purposes, saying it held the large ceremony in order to attract media attention. It is good to reward excellent students, but such rewards should only be symbolic.