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Migrant examinees attract cheating suspicion
By Li Fangchao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-18 06:03
HARBIN: A wave of "migrating examinees" has sparked an investigation into
possible cheating during last weekend's national self-study college entrance
examinations.
Several thousand examinees from Heilongjiang Province arrived in Jilin, Jilin
Province, two days before the examination, according to reports in Harbin
newspaper Life Daily.
The temporary migrants crammed the carriages of the once-a-day train from
Harbin to Jilin before piling into the city's hostels.
The question troubling many is why did these examinees travel all the way to
Jilin when they could have taken the exam at home?
Insiders say the answer is clear: The migrant examinees were all cheating.
For a 200 yuan (US$25) "information fee," it is alleged, each examinee
received a detailed "mock test" from an "authoritative source" and was
guaranteed "assistance" while sitting the exams.
Two offices responsible for the self-study exams in Heilongjiang and Jilin
provinces have been ordered to give a written report on the incident to the
Ministry of Education.
Sun Rongjiang, deputy director of the Heilongjiang Provincial Examination
Recruitment Office, told China Daily that they had learned of the likely exodus
beforehand.
"We couldn't do anything about it, it is not illegal to take exams in places
other than your residency," he said.
Sun estimated that around 1,000 examinees may have travelled to Jilin from
Heilongjiang for the exam, denying the 6,000 reported by Life Daily.
In response to accusations of organized cheating, Sun said he wasn't
surprised.
"Before the exam we were very worried that some test papers had leaked. If
any cheating took place, then we are very unhappy about it and it is extremely
frustrating," he said.
The current punishments for exam cheating include withholding an examinee's
qualification or annulling his or her results, steps which are not tough enough
to put off determined cheaters, said Sun.
"We are craving an 'examination law,'" he said.
(China Daily 10/18/2005 page3)
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