Students lack moral values

A group of graduates from a prestigious university were arrested recently for operating a gambling website under the name of a "video game company" in the city of Taizhou in Zhejiang province. The case shows that because of insufficient moral education, even people with higher education, high potential and professional competence may not use their talent for social good, says an article on xinhuanet.com. Excerpts:

The gambling racket being run by the graduates was spread across 12 provinces and worth more than 100 million yuan ($16.3 million). Some of the core racketeers in the "company", including the "technical director", "game developers" and the "art designer", were all graduates from well-known universities in the country. Many of them used to have successful careers, which they ruined because of their greed to make more money using illegal means.

The tragedy of these social elites can be attributed to multiple reasons. Chinese universities focus almost exclusively on imparting bookish knowledge, ignoring the practical and moral aspects of higher education. As a result, many students tend not to pay attention to moral values.

With limited respect for moral boundaries, the knowledge they acquire in schools and colleges could thus be used for immoral and illegal purposes, which is a criminal waste of higher education resources that are spent on them.

Moreover, people in general are not trained to be vigilant against frauds and tricksters. No wonder, people in charge of the building were shocked to hear that the graduates were running a gambling racket there when police shut down the company. It is highly likely that many people who frequented the premises might have turned a blind eye to the goings-on to avoid trouble.

It is important that people involved in the gambling racket get the severest punishment, so that others are deterred from taking the same path to make easy money. Also, to address the root of the problem, universities should have some provision to impart moral education to students to ensure that they understand the difference between legal and illegal ways of making money and the consequences of following the latter path.