Chongqing municipality authorities' decision to launch activities, such as paid internship, farm education, and industrial production and military training, to provide about 700,000 university students a "practice platform" has triggered a heated public debate, says an article in China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

Chongqing authorities may have many reasons to believe that college students will benefit by taking part in the four-month activities. But critics argue that university students should be trained in advanced productivity methods, and not outdated ones. The critics say it is mistaken ideas such as the ones floated by Chongqing authorities that are harming university graduates. Such graduates need to develop their social and interpersonal skills as part of their vocational education. Many of today's university graduates are unaware of basic national conditions and social reality, the soft powers that employers look for in jobseekers.

Take the media for example. Though the media's slogan is always to lead China and make Chinese read, they allow fresh recruits to write about the country and its people without having enough knowledge about either. Today's young journalists may have visited more places and met more people than their predecessors of say two generations ago, but they still don't know how to judge a piece of news or understand the importance of news. The reason: they lack proper knowledge and experience. A one-year apprenticeship can help reporters acquire the knowledge and understanding to differentiate good from bad news, important from sensational news, and pro-people from anti-people reports.

Many university students today want to be civil servants. If they receive "vocational education" during their days in the university, perhaps they will develop the love for the people and be determined to serve them even against all odds. And this is what our country and people need the most. Though China has completed 30 years of reform and opening-up, it is still necessary to send college students to countryside to be re-educated.

(China Daily 11/17/2010 page9)