Three police officers and a teacher are among five people arrested on Friday for allegedly taking part in the national college entrance exam cheating scam in northwest China's Gansu Province, local authorities said.

Police officers Liu Xiaobin, Hou Zhaopeng and Jia Xudong and civilian police worker Zou Rong, who worked in police branches in Maiji District of Tianshui City, were suspected of having taken bribes to fabricate household registration and ID cards for 31 illegal exam takers from east China's Shandong Province, said Yang Ruifeng, Tianshui government spokesman.

Zhang Hongju, a senior high school teacher, was also arrested for allegedly making money by helping the exam takers apply for the exam.

Four other officials in Shandong and Gansu were arrested late last month for allegedly organizing the cheating ring.

Under Chinese law, candidates must take college entrance exams where their hukou, or permanent residence, are registered because students from less developed regions, like Gansu, can enjoy a lower threshold to qualify for university places. The exam takers from Yanggu County, Shandong, are alleged to have traveled across China to take exams or impersonate others in Tianshui, Yang said.

They were exposed to be illegal exam takers after one of them mistakenly signed his own name during the exam, Yang said. "All of them have been rounded up and sent home by police."

The Ministry of Education said on Tuesday that 2,645 people out of 10.38 million examinees were caught cheating this year, down by about 800 from last year.

(Xinhua News Agency July 5, 2008)