Failure of Chinese Students’ Cheating Game?

The various ways of cheating in exams, sneaking in a cheat sheet, peeping around, secretly passing answers to others, are often depicted in Chinese movies. Although these films joke about such behavior, Chinese educators have long been frustrated about students cheating, especially in universities. Many college students are increasingly taking abnormal tactics in order to gain their desired exam score – only to continue cheating in post-graduate entrance examination.

In the 2015 National Post-Graduate Entrance Examination from December 26 to 27, a massive leaking of English test questions was revealed online by an exam taker, saying that dozens of other students taking the exam had received part of answers to the English test 45 minutes before it had started. Some comments, given by examinees, replied that most of these answers leaked online were identical with their own answers. Other examinees added that they also had access to solutions of a politics test and another test of a specialized course ahead of the examination. The leak soon caught wide-range media attention.

Only one day after the leak incident, China’s Ministry of Education announced that it had reported the case to the police through its Weibo account. The Ministry also requested that the police hold those behind the cheating scandal responsible. This is in accordance with the Ninth Amendment of China’s Criminal Law, which on November 11 ruled organizing, conducting serious cheating and selling keys in national exams as committing crime. Furthermore, those found guilty of the crime would be sentenced to 3 to 7 years of imprisonment.

This amendment marks a transition as serious cheating in exams can be convicted as a serious crime instead of a rule violation. The move comes at a time when offenders are increasingly resorting to technological innovations in order to cheat. Those desperate for high scores can easily obtain various methods online to facilitate cheating in exams, including plug-in earphones for listening to answers and erasers with a mini screen on one side. As a result of such sneaky devices, it is increasingly difficult such foul play to be detected.

The global community now starts to pay more attention to students’ cheating in China, in particular when Educational Testing Service (ETS) in the U.S. postponed to send SAT scores on November 24 to Chinese students for the sake of honesty concerns. According to the New York Times, ETS suspected that this year’s test paper for Asia-Pacific region duplicated the paper used in North American region in 2013.

The incident also sparked off a debate about Chinese students using fraudulent ways to secure their chances of studying overseas by faking application documents. It has become increasingly common for a multitude of Chinese applicants, especially those lacking adequate English skills, to depend on commercial agents for falsified transcripts, phony letters of recommendation and ghostwritten essays.

To respond to the doubts raised by the international education industry, a greater effort needs to be made in order to counter such dishonest behavior. The Ninth Amendment of the Criminal Law is certainly going to be one major endeavor to cracking down on those who cheat and those who make a profit by helping others cheat. Nevertheless, is the Amendment full-proof to stop all cheats? Definitely not. There will presumably be a certain amount of cheating conductors at large who will go unnoticed. Tang Hua, a Xinhua reporter said that if invigilators collaborate with examine takers, cheating will be hard to spot.

More importantly, attention should be paid to the causes that lead cheaters to break the rules. 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