Educators call for tightened gaokao regulations

Education experts are calling for tighter regulations on the national college entrance examinations, or gaokao, following an investigation by Henan education authorities into organized cheating.

The Higher Education Admission Office of Henan province confirmed Tuesday that a special team was sent to Kaifeng to assist a police investigation into cheating in the examination, which took place on June 7 and 8. The Ministry of Education (MOE) has also sent a team to Henan to monitor the probe.

The investigation started the same day the scandal was exposed by China Central Television.

A representative of Henan police told the Global Times they will speed up the investigation as they are aware of the widespread public attention.

Highly-organized group cheating was found in several exam locations in Henan, in which university students from Wuhan, Hubei province were allegedly bribed to sit the exam for the candidates.

They will be rewarded with 20,000 yuan ($3,209) if they could help their "client" to get into a second-tier university, or 30,000 yuan for top-tier schools.

The group managed to get away with heavy regulations using fake fingerprints and bribing exam invigilators.

The MOE has also sent monitors to Central China's Hubei province to track down the fraudulent test-takers.

Cheating is not uncommon in the gaokao, and this case is just another incident exposing the structural problems, Chu Zhaohui, a research fellow with the National Institute of Educational Sciences, told the Global Times.

"The committee in charge is made up of a group of amateurs who have no professional knowledge in exam regulations," said Chu.

According to China's examination regulations, university students involved in cheating will be expelled, while high school students will have their scores canceled and could be barred from retaking the test for several years.

Despite the punishment, some university students who come from grass-roots families will still take the risk, as the money reward is too attractive, Zhao Jing, president of Compubridge Research Institute of College Planning, told the Global Times.

Henan is now using an older model of fingerprint identity sensor, which is easily deceived by fake fingerprints, an expert on identity inspection systems, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times Wednesday.