Police form teams to investigate gaokao cheating

Police in Kaifeng, Henan province, have formed two special teams to investigate surrogate exam-takers and monitors who took bribes to overlook them. The parents and test monitors of seven identified surrogate exam-takers are being investigated, the local public security department said on Wednesday.

Two college students involved went to Qixian county in Henan province, where they completed the gaokao, or college entrance exam, successfully. A CCTV report on the incident stirred up a scandal in Henan province.

Teachers at universities in Wuhan, Hubei province, organized college students to be ghostwriters for exam applicants in Henan province, and bribed officials and test monitors, who then helped the surrogates pass strict checks before the exams, the report said.

A man, surnamed Li, said the college students wore special fingerprint films to pass machine checks. The test monitors then approved the students as matching the documents they carried, including identity cards, because they had been bribed to do so.

In order to ensure all the teachers present would overlook the cheating, at least 70,000 yuan ($11,245) for a single test room was paid, Li said.

Zang Zhenfeng, an official with the public security department of Qixian county, Kaifeng, said they identified car license plate numbers released in the CCTV report at Qixian Datong High School, the exam site in Kaifeng, to find the people involved in the cheating.

"We launched a joint investigation with the national education authority, public security bureaus and the discipline inspection department," Zang said.

So far, the province has identified 127 surrogate exam-takers for the gaokao, according to an announcement from the admissions office.

All those found to have been involved in the cheating would receive severe punishments, to guarantee the fairness and justness of the national exam, said the announcement released by the Ministry of Education on its official micro blog on Tuesday.

The case is still under investigation, the police said.

qixin@chinadaily.com.cn