China vows 'zero tolerance' on NCEE cheating

Xinhua, June 4, 2011

China's education authority on Friday vowed an "iron hand and zero tolerance" on cheating as about 9.33 million students will sit national college entrance exams next week.

The Ministry of Education has dispatched several inspection groups nationwide to supervise preparations for the annual test. It also has ordered local educational bureaus to hand out severe punishments if violations are discovered.

Efforts this year will focus on cracking down on wireless communication devices, which are used by students to obtain answers from people outside the exam venues, as well as use of the Internet and mobile phones during the exams, the ministry said in a circular on Friday.

The educational authority will make more efforts to crack down on organized cheating schemes in the make-or-break matriculation slated for June 7 and 8.

As the students are doing some last-minute cramming for the upcoming national college entrance tests, local authorities have launched a crackdown on sales of high-tech devices that might be used to cheat on the test.

Since late April, police in Changchun, the capital city of northeastern China's Jilin Province, have busted eight criminal rings that have admitted to selling devices such as wireless earphones and transmitter-receiver sets that allow their buyers to cheat on the exams, said Liang Xiangdong, deputy head of the city's public security bureau.

Fourteen of the 18 arrested ring members are still in custody, Liang said.