Probe finds no cheating in gaokao

Parents of four students claimed that their exam papers had been switched

An investigation into claims that students in Henan province were cheated out of high scores in the national college entrance examination, or gaokao, has found no evidence of wrongdoing, disciplinary authorities said.

The parents of four students in four cities claimed last week that their children’s exam papers had been switched, resulting in them receiving much lower scores than expected in the June exam. They blamed corruption in local admissions offices.

The province’s top anti-graft bodies — the Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supervisory Commission — launched a probe into the allegations. After checking the student’s papers and surveillance footage from the test centers, they issued a joint statement on Saturday saying nothing untoward had been found.

The parents told the authorities they suspected their cities’ higher education admissions offices had switched gaokao answer sheets after their children received half the scores they expected after doing well in mock exams.

Su Hong, the father of one student, accused officials at the admissions office of abusing their power and colluding with others, and said the parents had handed over evidence they gathered through various means to the disciplinary authorities.

The authorities said a review of surveillance camera footage showed there had been no switching of the students’ test papers and answer sheets. Every exam procedure at the sites used by the four students, such as unsealing, distribution, collection, resealing and scanning, was done strictly in compliance with set standards.

The parents of the four students were allowed to personally check the students’ original answer sheets for every subject.

One of the students, surnamed Li, from Xixian county, and his parents confirmed that it was his handwriting, and that his answer sheet had not been switched. The other three students and their parents requested handwriting authentication tests, the authorities said.

Those tests and exam room surveillance videos confirmed the answer sheet of a student surnamed Yu, in Yongcheng, was written by himself and any alterations, including his personal information, were made by him. The handwriting on the papers of the other two students — one surnamed Su from Zhengzhou and the other, surnamed Yang, from Luoyang — was also their own and the papers had not been switched.

The investigation found that two admissions office officials — identified only by their surnames, Zhu and Yu — did not abuse their powers or collude with others to conduct cheating in the exam. There were no violations of laws and regulations, the statement said.

The disciplinary authorities said they will continue to perform their duties in strict accordance with the law, protect the legitimate rights and interests of students and safeguard the authority and impartiality of the college entrance exam.

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, an NGO, said that when the parents discovered their children’s scores were lower than they expected, their first reaction was that the answer sheets had been switched, which reflects the deep anxiety in society about the fairness of the important exam.

“We have seen cases of forged scores, switched tests and identity theft with the exam,” he said. “The college entrance examination must be transparent, eliminate hidden rules and further advance its reform to earn the public’s trust”.