School vacations: not just for fun

As the school winter vacation ended Monday, some parents are busy finding their children fake "social service" certificates from local neighborhood committees, to prove their children participated in community service, as education authorities asked.

The city's primary and middle schools asked students to sign up at local resident committees as the winter break started, join in community service for the month and submit a certificate with the committee's stamp as proof. However, some parents are trying to meet this requirement by asking for the committee's certificates for their children who didn't participate at all, say committee employees.

"I've had many parents come for a stamp and a signature, but we only sign for those who participated," said Cui Lina at Haidian's Daochengfu neighborhood committee.

During vacations, the committee calls on students to clean up fly posting, or pick up litter in the area, she said.

"The kids don't really do much. We'll sign the certificates if they show up," said Cui.

Another committee employee, surnamed Sun, with Haidian's Nanlou community, said only a few students signed up.　

"There are no requirements for how long or how often they need to do it," said Sun.

Some parents spent hours begging heighborhood committee employees for a signature on the certificates, Beijing News reported Monday.

A mother said this requirement is "encouraging kids to lie," since usually the activities are just a formality and teachers don't even look at the certificates when students hand then in, the report said.

The district education commission asked schools and residential communities to work together in encouraging student participation in community activities, but the stamped certificates have nothing to do with students' performance assessment at school, said Vice-principal Wei of Ditan Primary School in Dongcheng district.
"Many parents are busy working during the winter vacation, and community activities organized by committees bring them together for better care and management," said Wei. The "social practice" is a suggestion and not mandatory, she said, and the school will collect student participation results and submit them to the district education commission.

Social service is meaningless if authorities just give orders without detailed requirements, which naturally lead to formalities and complaints, said Chu Zhaohui, researcher with China National Institute for Educational Research.

"The whole society is responsible for students' education, not just schools and education authorities," he said.

If students can take an educational tour at places they are interested in, for example, a factory or a government institute, the social service requirement would really work, he said.