Number of words: 113

The examination, which forms the basis of the Chinese system of education in the past, was a build up of essays in an ascending order with competition that excluded all but the best. It was justified on the grounds that it provided the means by which Confucianism and traditionalism, to their absolute control of the educated class and thus for the Government to have continued to dominate so absolutely this large population. But though these words sound praiseworthy in public, there is, in fact, no attempt at moral regeneration, but an insidious way of establishing a one-dimensional thinking in the empire.

Excerpted from page 20 of ‘Examinations: An Informative Update’ by M Mascarenhas.