China's Shangdong Province will introduce a credit system to manage and evaluate senior high school students' performances starting in 2011.

The Beijing News reports that the move is intended to reduce the division between arts and sciences in senior high schools.

Currently, senior high school students must choose to learn either arts or sciences in their second year, and take the National Entrance Examinations for College Students accordingly.

Educators have criticized this policy, saying it has a negative effect on the development of students as well as the nation.

Zhu Yongxin, a deputy to the National People's Congress, says the division between arts and sciences places the students learning arts at a disadvantage. They are regarded as second-class citizens because of their reluctance or inability to learn sciences. On the other hand, students learning sciences lack the training received in more human-oriented and social courses.

Zhu Yongxin also says the division will bring down the national cultural quality in the long run, and it may cost many potential real masters of sciences and arts along the way.

The article concludes by saying that the move to eliminate the division between arts and sciences will ensure the overall and healthy development of both high school students and society as a whole.