A recent announcement by the education department in Leiyang, Hunan province, making blood donation by teachers compulsory by linking it directly to their bonuses, provoked widespread criticism on social networking sites.

Media reports said that in the announcement in late September, the Leiyang education bureau asked local schools to fulfill the blood donation task, even assigning a target for every school.

The Leiyang education bureau reacted to the report saying the blood donation drive was voluntary and not linked to teachers' payment, but it confirmed that schools that fail to fulfill the task will lose marks for performance evaluation. It admitted also that the evaluation of schools will affect teachers' bonuses.

Although the education bureau has turned the blood donation drive into a compulsory task for local schools, the bureau itself hasn't been assigned any quota and, according to the document, its staff are needed to donate blood, but voluntarily.

According to the Blood Donation Law, blood donation is an activity that should be undertaken voluntarily by healthy citizens. Therefore, any mandatory order is an illegal act.

The Leiyang educational authority's administrative order linking blood donation with teachers' bonuses goes against the law, and should be corrected immediately.

Moreover, forcing the teachers to donate blood by threatening to cut their bonuses is an abuse of administrative power, which is not the right thing to do even if the intention might be good.

Such a mandatory order is not conducive to promoting people's well-being. Instead of making the blood donation compulsory, the authorities should focus on increasing people's awareness so more and more people donate blood.

In June, the Henan Provincial Health Commission announced that a voluntary blood donor would be entitled to a discount when requiring blood transfusion, and a person who has cumulatively donated 1,000 milliliters of blood could enjoy free blood transfusion for life. Such a policy, rather than a mandatory administrative requirement, can encourage more people to donate blood voluntarily and help more people in need.

— WANG YIQING, CHINA DAILY