Zhejiang’s education head ordered to quit over exam flap

East China’s Zhejiang Province announced it would fire the director of the education department on Wednesday days after test takers and parents challenged the weighted scoring of an English test in the province’s college entrance examinations.

The surprising decision to fire Guo Huawei was announced at a press conference in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang, on Wednesday.

Officials gave weighted scores without researching. Some officials of the Provincial Education Examinations Authority have adopted the wrong decision when most participants of a working meeting disagreed, the provincial government told a press conference.

When test scores for the college entrance examination, or gaokao, were published on November 24, students and parents challenged the scores, which they said failed to reflect test takers’ actual performance.

On November 27, Zhejiang Education Examination Authority said that “some questions were more difficult than the previous year’s.” Weighted scores were given to guarantee the level of difficulty for various tests “were roughly the same.”

On Saturday, the Zhejiang provincial government announced an investigation into the issue, which was joined by education professionals and experts.

Two other officials in the education department were also punished and one will face further investigation.