SUMMER is not a good time of the year for all high school students. While some will end up with a promising start to their future careers, others will have to live with the poor results they received in the National College Entrance Examination.

Those who fail the examination have a couple of hard decisions to make: to prepare for the next National College Entrance Examination, to go abroad to continue their studies or to find a job. The decision will not be easy but of all the students who fail, those who were sitting for the National College Entrance Examination for Majors in Art have the toughest decision.

In China, the high school curriculum for students taking the National College Entrance Examination for general majors is totally different from the system for the students who will take the National College Entrance Examination for Majors in Art: the latter places less importance on general subjects including mathematics, physics or English but emphasizes more on specialized subjects in the arts such as dancing, singing or painting.

In other words, compared with students from an ordinary high school, art students have much less knowledge of general subjects. And as they won't be required to do the general subjects at university they concentrate on dancing well, singing well or painting well when doing the examination.

Risky road

But it's a cruel truth that not all the students who take the test for Majors in Art will pass. And since they know little of the general subjects, they will have little opportunity to change to an ordinary major or to find an appropriate job.

So, the question is: what can these art students do after they fail the examination? The number of students taking the National College Entrance Examination for the Majors in Art is high this year. According to the Shanghai Morning Post, the enrollment rate for some art majors in Shanghai this year was one in fifty. This means that of every 50 art students sitting for the examination, 49 will fail.

Students who fail the National College Entrance Examination for general majors get plenty of attention from psychologists and from special review courses set up to prepare them for the next one. They can easily find a way to carry on their studies or to start work. But the failed art students are not so lucky. They have a poor knowledge of general subjects because they have concentrated on the special subjects they would need if they were to become professional artists. It's natural that they have spent less time to studying general subjects than the students in an ordinary high school have.

Attention urged

The curriculum in art schools is seriously unbalanced. Zhang Jingjing, who graduated from a dancing school and was enrolled by the Shanghai Theatre Academy last year, said: "When I was in the dancing school, I spent little time on mathematics because the school did not teach the subject. And the most emphasized general subject, English, appeared in the schedule in the last two months before we took the National College Entrance Examination."

She was fortunate in passing the test and beginning her new career in college and a look at the results of her classmates shows how lucky she was: in her class, only one in three students made it to university. Some of the rest went abroad to continue their studies but they were the children of wealthy families.

Others cannot find a job because they know nothing but dancing and some are preparing for the next examination. Those who cannot find work are trying to learn the subjects not taught in art schools but, as Zhang said, it won't be easy for them.

Tu Yingjia was another fortunate girl. She was a good dancer in her art school and was given a high score in the dancing test. But she failed to pass the national examination because of her poor knowledge of general subjects. This shocked her and after a year's preparation, she went to Denmark and changed her major to business.

Her efforts to learn a new language paid off and she passed the entire preparatory course in EUC Nord and was awarded a first-grade scholarship. A local newspaper in Denmark reported her achievement but she still regrets losing her dancing career. "Dancing is the most important and most meaningful thing in my life, but because of the unbalanced curriculum arrangement in art schools, I lost my chance to carry it on," she said.

She said some of her classmates were depressed after failing to pass the examination and some had become mistresses because all they had left to go on was their pretty faces.

Society needs to pay more attention to this group of children. Professor Wang Yun of the Shanghai Theatre Academy said: "Every year after the National College Entrance Examination, the academy sets up preparatory classes for those students who have not passed the test to help them to prepare for the next examination. But the teachers will also ask these children to learn general subjects more because it's impossible for everyone to pass."

Wang said the problem will not be finally solved until the education authorities made adjustments to the curriculum in art schools.

This August, as in past years, many art students have had to give up the hopes they cherished for their future careers and have begun to struggle to find a way to make a living.

It's great that society pays attention to many of the students who do not pass the National College Entrance Examination, but this only applies to students taking the examination for general majors. Students from art schools still have to struggle on their own. As a minority of high school students, maybe they need more help and consideration - and a change in their curriculum.