Chinese students sitting down to the most important exams of their lives this week needed no reminder of how high stakes were. But they got one — the promise of jail time if they were caught cheating on their tests.
It’s the first time that custodial sentences have been stipulated for anyone using underhand tactics to get ahead their gaokao university entrance examinations — essentially China’s equivalent of America’s SAT.
School leavers are assessed on their Chinese, mathematics, English and another subject of their choosing, though accusations of mass cheating have been rife in recent years, even involving alleged organized syndicates between teachers and pupils. In 2013, there was a riot at one school when invigilators tried to halt brazen exam fraud.
Already, surveillance drones and metal detectors are deployed to catch those smuggling in illicit radio equipment, while iris and fingerprint scanners ferret out brainy stooges paid to sit the test in lieu of the bona fide student.
Now, though, those caught cheating will be banned from repeating the test for several years, while anyone caught facilitating mass cheating or paying someone else to sit the test on their behalf can face up to seven years in prison.
“So many students cheated the year I took my gaokao and if cheating were treated as a criminal offense then, I would be much better off than I am now,” posted one user on China’s Twitter-like microblog Weibo. “I think there are many victims like me.”
Security is so tight that for the first time SWAT teams will accompany gaokao test papers, with at least eight police officers guarding each examination hall in Beijing, reports state media.
Do you think this is an effective way of curbing exams malpractices? Should similar be enforced in Ghana? Leave your comment below.
