Some high schools in Luohe city, Henan province, organized a students' tour to Xu Shen Cultural Park, where more than 1,100 students reportedly prayed to Xu Shen, the god of wisdom in Chinese legends, to help them clear the national college entrance exam. The incident shows that some schools are encouraging students to seek divine help to succeed in exams, which is shocking, says an article in Beijing Youth Daily. Excerpts:

Local school authorities say visits to places such as Xu Shen Cultural Park is to pay homage to ancient wise men as well as to provide spiritual comfort to students. But in reality such visits are an attempt to seek divine help for success in worldly matters like examinations.

It's a different matter when parents take their children to temples to pray for their success in exams. But when schools encourage such behavior, it goes against the spirit of education and competitiveness.

Besides, how could the Luohe school authorities be sure that all the students in the group that visited the Xu Shen Cultural Park to pray were believers?

Moreover, the primary responsibility of high schools is to impart education and help students develop independent personalities, and depend on their knowledge and competence for success in life. Since the college entrance exam is the first important step a student takes to enter the wider society, he/she should not depend on divine help to succeed in it.

The right thing for schools to do to solve students' psychological problems before exams would be to provide them with proper counseling and good guidance.

Some people may blame the college entrance exam for turning students into slaves of high scores. But to some extent, the utilitarian attitude of some school authorities is responsible for turning students into mechanical beings.

We should not forget that the goal of education is to cultivate all-round talents, and not to churn out graduates without self-confidence.