SHANGHAI - In early June, Chinese police were unusually busy catching "spies".
But the "spies" were not trying to steal state secrets, they were students
using cutting-edge spy-ware to cheat in make-or-break national college entrance
exams.
Despite it being increasingly difficult for fresh university graduates to find
good jobs, and though the chance of high school students being admitted to
universities has grown slimmer due to the fast expansion of university
enrollment, entrance exams remain very competitive.
In China, higher education is perhaps the only way left for poorer youth to
climb the social hierarchy.
According to data from the Ministry of Education, some 10.2 million high school
graduates took part in this year's college
entrance exams. But just 60% are likely to be given places in universities
across the country.
This has caused fierce competition, and cheating in exams has become rampant.
So much so that the Ministry of Education installed closed-circuit television
networks to monitor all test venues. However, as the Chinese say: "Good is
strong, but evil is 10 times stronger," and this has only led cheaters to turn
to more sophisticated means.
Despite the unprecedented security, exam cheaters in this year's exams were
fearless. Aided by their parents and sometimes even teachers and local
officials, some cheaters used expensive, high-tech spying devices.
The devices uncovered were reminiscent of those seen in spy movies:
transmitters embedded in pencil erasers or watches, wireless microphone gadgets
the size of a bean, earplugs as thin as a vein, and high-definition cameras
shaped like buttons. The devices were able to bypass wireless shield and metal
detectors, police said.
In an operation before the June 7-8 exams, police in northwestern Jilin
province busted a gang manufacturing and selling the devices and which was also
providing test answers. Sixteen people - mostly college-educated professionals
- were arrested and more than 600 spy devices confiscated.
Police believe the gang, which was operating in seven provinces, had sold some
of its products to cheaters in the national college entrance exam.
Exam cheating has become an industry, said Ma Hongzhe, a police officer at
Songyuan, a small city in Jilin that made national headlines over the rampant
cheating at its entrance exams. It is an industry with a clear division of
work. Some in the gangs specialize in manufacturing the spy gear, some in
stealing the test questions, and others in sending pupils answers with wireless
transmitters from outside the exam halls.
Just 10 minutes after obtaining the test questions, the gangs were able to send
answers to any student who had bought the spy-ware all around China - while
also making sure that the cheaters' papers were not identical, police said.
In Songyuan, police uncovered 14 cases of spy devices being sold to pupils this
year, with 25 people detained on criminal charges.
The spy devices are not cheap. One set of devices and answers was sold for
20,000 yuan (US$2,900), the average yearly income of a blue collar worker in a
Chinese city. But parents are eager to send their children to universities and
do not hesitate to pay for them. At Songyuan, parents and students were seen
openly discussing answers at the exam recess, state-run newspaper the China
Youth Daily reported.
The cheaters at Songyuan were not only supported by their parents. Two high
school teachers in Songyuan, Liu Yanhua and He Shujie, were caught selling
students spy-ware devices. Through selling the ear pieces and receivers they
made a profit of more than 400,000 yuan, police said.
Several senior government officials at Qian'an county, Songyuan, were also
caught accepting bribes from exam cheaters last year. Among them included the
vice county magistrate, Hou Liqiu, vice education chief Yu Zhanyu and three
policemen.
Aside from the financial benefits, there are other incentives for education
officials. In China, college enrollment rates are often linked to the
performance of education officials and teachers.
Customers for the spy-gear are not limited to college entrance examinees. The
industry is present in almost all major exams, from national English-level
tests and college entrance tests to lawyer's qualification tests and civil
service tests.
In January, nearly 1,000 people were caught cheating on the notoriously
competitive civil service exams. The number caught cheating was the largest
ever for this exam. More than half used technology and answers provided by
illegal organizations in exchange for money, state media said.
To counter the rising number of cheats, the government deployed intensified
security around college entrance exam venues, with Jilin mobilizing at least
10,000 police to patrol the exam venues during the three-day exam.
But it was not enough. In Songyuan alone, at least 33 students were caught
using electronic earphones and receivers. The number could be just the tip of
the iceberg.
The province has said it will invest nearly 50 million yuan to install anti-spy
devices in 2010, and is considering buying wireless-monitoring vehicles to
patrol exam venues, at a cost of at least 100 million yuan. Police have
complained that spy-gear manufacturers swiftly develop new technologies that
can beat anti-spy systems.
There is no law against cheating in exams, so cheaters are only disciplined.
But selling, buying or possessing spy-ware without authorization is a crime.
Selling spy-gear to exam cheaters could result in up to three years in jail, a
relatively short term considering the huge profits available. But the rising
number of pupils being caught has led to calls for them to face legal
punishment.
While harsher legal penalties may reduce cheating inside exam venues, they are
unlikely to address other means of cheating practiced by the rich and powerful.
According to state media, government officials in various cities have faked
their children's ethnic origins so that they could be enrolled with lower marks
- Chinese universities have preferential policies for ethnic minorities. In
southwest China's Chongqing municipality, 31 students faked their identities to
get extra marks for the entrance exam, including He Chuanyang, who scored a
higher score than any other art student in Chongqing. His father and mother are
both government officials.
Some officials managed to get direct enrollment for their children, a special
treatment supposed to be reserved for outstanding students. At Songyuan, most
of the 10 students enrolled by elite universities without exams in the past
three years were children of senior local officials. This year's direct
enrollment list was also dominated by children of high-ranking officials, and
the authorities had to destroy the list after it was exposed by the media.
The college entrance exams are crucial for Chinese families, as they can
determine whether a student enters the country's educated elite or joins the
general workforce. In a country with wide gaps between rich and poor, the
powerful and the underprivileged, the college entrance exam is one of the few
chances where youngsters from all backgrounds can compete on a level playing
field.
If entrance exams are unfair this could widen social gaps. Some say that
children's moral values are also at stake - how can people expect a child
taught to cheat to grow up to be an honest citizen? Professor Xiong Bingqi,
vice president of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, says the
cheating will have far-reaching effects on the nation's talent selection
system.
With government officials, parents and teachers setting such a bad example,
it's hard to put all blame on the students or on new technologies. When
corruption becomes the norm, children and technology will only adapt
accordingly.
Stephen Wong is a freelance journalist from Shanghai, China.
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