BEIJING, Oct. 26 -- East China Normal University (ECNU) will begin recruiting education majors next year based on personal interviews instead of scores on the national college entrance exam in order to train students who really want to become teachers, school officials said Wednesday.

The university will recruit 200 students next year through the pilot admission plan, making it the third university in the city to accept students without looking at exam scores, following Fudan and Jiao Tong.

High school graduates who are interested in teaching jobs are eligible to apply for the teacher training courses.

Applicants will be selected on the basis of interviews to see if they have the communication skills and other abilities to become a good teacher.

"Our point is to make sure that we put the most elite and suitable professionals into elementary education positions," ECNU President Yu Lizhong said at the Second International Forum on Teacher Education yesterday.

The country's existing teacher enrollment relies solely on national college entrance exam scores. That system encourages many students who did well on the exam but aren't interested in becoming teachers to enroll in education programs, said Wang Jianpan, an ECNU professor.

The school said a large number of education students apply to change their majors at the end of the first year, and many graduates end up taking office jobs instead of teaching positions.

"The loss of trained education majors is a punch to the country's teacher quality," Yu said.

(Source: Shanghai Daily)