Two arrested after exposé of identity fraud in China's college entrance exams
Undercover journalist tells of college students hired to sit national university entrance tests
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 07 June, 2015, 11:22pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 07 June, 2015, 11:23pm
Mimi Lau [email protected]
Security personnel guard the entrance to one of the schools where the annual Gao Kao or national college entrace exams are being held in Beijing. photo: AP Photo
An undercover journalist's exposé of a syndicate that hires university students to sit the national college entrance examinations has led to the arrest of at least two people taking the tests in Jiangxi province.
Jiangxi police and education authorities launched an investigation into the scandal amid a public outcry yesterday as 9.4 million pupils across the mainland started the annual two-day exams.
"A fair higher-education examination is critical to all pupils sitting the exam, and also for social stability," the Ministry of Education said.
"Any act of fabrication of identification cards [and] exam permits … as well as the hiring of replacements to sit the exams will result in disqualification and temporary suspension from taking national exams."
Offenders could face criminal charges, the statement added.
The move came after an undercover reporter with The Southern Metropolis Daily exposed a syndicate for hiring college students from Hubei province to sit the exams in Nanchang , Jiangxi.
The report alleged that at least six people, including the journalist, were taking the examinations in No.10 Nanchang Secondary School, equipped with fake identity cards and examination permits.
Soon after the story broke, Nanchang examination authority chief Xiong Biao oversaw the arrest of one fraudulent exam-taker in the school.
Another exam-taker was arrested at an exam venue in the Jiangxi city of Yingtan .
According to the report, the fraudulent exam-takers were not told exactly how much they would get, but were instead promised payment based on how well they scored in the exams.
One exam-taker allegedly told the undercover reporter he could be paid up to 100,000 yuan (HK$126,000) if he did well enough to gain entrance into key universities in Hubei's capital city of Wuhan .
He could get 25,000 yuan if he scored well enough to enter a top undergraduate programme in Henan province.
A score good enough to enter prestigious national universities was worth several million yuan, the report said.
Local governments have adopted various measures to deter cheaters, mainland news reports said.
Guangzhou's examination authority uses metal detectors to prevent pupils from bringing in banned items.
In Luoyang , Henan, drones are deployed to run electromagnetic scans at exam venues.
In some cities in Henan, Sichuan and Liaoning provinces, retina and fingerprint scans are used to verify exam takers' identities.
