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Doctors back creative China boy penalised for using medical diagnosis in maths test

  • China moves to boost creativity by changing ‘Soviet-style’ education system that required ‘standard answers’

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Doctors in China have rallied behind a schoolboy who gave a correct medical diagnosis answer to a question in a maths test and was penalised  for doing so. Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock/Douyin
Fran Luin Beijing

Doctors in China have united behind a primary schoolboy who was penalised for answering a mathematics question with a medical diagnosis.

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The boy’s mother, who uses the name @Xiaojun on Douyin, posted his test paper on the social media platform.

The question referred to a graphic showing a person’s temperature dropping from 39.5 to 36.7 degrees Celsius over a three-day period.

“What information can you get from the graphic?” it asked.

The boy, whose name was not revealed, answered: “The patient is about to recover.”

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The teacher judged the answer to be wrong and deducted four points from his paper.

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