Cheating in entrance exam drops

By Wang Ying (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-19 08:49

Advanced technology has helped to significantly reduce cheating in this year's national college entrance examination, held from June 7 to 9, sources with the Ministry of Education have said.

Students taking this year's college entrance exam are inspected for illegal devices at an examination room in Dalian. [China Daily]

More than 2,600 examinees nationwide, or 2.6 out of every 10,000, were disciplined for cheating in the exam this year, the lowest rate in the past decade.

The authorities previously caught more than three candidates out of every 10,000 for cheating every year, ministry figures showed.

New technology such as wireless supervision systems, electronic monitoring devices, mobile phone detectors and wireless signal screens have been used to curb cheating in the past two years, officials said.

A monitoring system for the college entrance exam, considered a life-changing event for many high school graduates nationwide, is based on local schools' networks and connected to provincial headquarters specially set up for the exam.

All venues in 16 provinces and regions can in turn be seen and monitored on large screens at the National Education Examination Authorities in Beijing.

Inspectors can reportedly see every part of a venue in detail and track examinees' every move. They can even communicate with local exam officials.

The local exam headquarters in 31 provinces and regions are also said to be able to view most exam venues via a monitoring system. The videos of the invigilation will be kept on file for future reference.

Wireless monitoring vans that patrol near exam venues have also helped detect suspicious electronic signals and exposed exam cheats.

In Leiyang, Hunan province, three students were caught for allegedly using special earplugs to receive answers sent out by accomplices outside the exam hall on June 8.

The patrolling vans had traced the signals from the exam hall to a nearby hotel room. The case is still under investigation.

Zhang Jihai, an official in charge of exam discipline at the Hunan Exam Authority, said the results of the exam in Leiyang will not be canceled because it will be unfair for other candidates to take another exam again only because of the three who had cheated.

In Weixin of Yunnan province, a mother was caught for helping her daughter cheat in the exam. The woman, surnamed Wei, was found sending exam answers using a wireless device at a home near where her 17-year-old daughter was taking the exam.

More than 10 million students sat for the college entrance exams earlier this month to compete for about 6 million places in universities throughout the country, ministry figures showed.

The exam results are scheduled to be released in a month.

An exam information website, gaokao.sina.com.cn, was launched recently by news portal Sina.com to help students search for related material and prepare for university applications.