SATURDAY JUNE 06, 2009
Photographer: Darien LibraryBEIJING (The International) — Cameras are being installed in 60,000 Chinese test centres ahead of the national college entrance exams, beginning on June 7th. E-police will also be in place to block any students who try to use radio transmitters or other communication devices to cheat. Additional measures will be taken to prevent any who sign in using a false ID. Any students caught cheating will be expelled, not allowed to re-sit the examination the next year, and barred from entry to university.
Hi-tech methods of cheating
Over 10 million Chinese students sit the exam each year in the hope of getting one of the few million places available at university. In recent years there have been cases of students caught cheating using hi-tech techniques thanks to our new age of communications. Students have been using radio receivers and mobile phones to receive real time advice from university students while doing the test, as well as the more traditional method of obtaining a copy of the exam questions.
Last year, officials in Zhejiang province bust a ring involving 33 people using radio and internet to provide answers, and similarly last week the Jilin Daily reported that in their province, 7 people were arrested for providing wireless technology to students. Advertising by hi-tech companies offering their services to students have been appearing online and outside schools in recent years according to the China Daily. Students pay up to 16,000 Yuan ($2,340 US) for copies of question papers, whereas radio or other communication systems are available for around 1,600 Yuan ($234 US), and therefore a more attractive option. The Ministry of Education test centre’s Director Dai Jiagan said the steps were necessary "to ensure the fairness for millions of test takers."
Students risking their health
There are concerns for the health and safety of students using these electronic devices to cheat. The Shanghai Post reported in 2006 that one student’s walkie-talkie exploded under their shirt going into an exam, and several students managed to perforate their ear drums with tiny earphones
so small that they easily slid down the aural canal.
One doctor in Hubei province needed to use surgical pliers to remove a magnetic mini earphone from one student’s eardrum. Another device strapped to a student’s body exploded causing them serious injury.
Students elsewhere
There are dozens of reports of hi-tech cheating around the world but not of students being hospitalised. In 2004, the South Korean police used text messages as evidence in an investigation on mass cheating for the college entrance exam; several text messages sent on the day of the multiple choice test consisted of single numbers between 1 and 5. The Korea Herald also reported instances of students arranging for someone else to sit the exam on their behalf. In 2006 in England, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority found that 60% of students caught cheating did so with the aid of a mobile phone. In 2008 a group of high school students in Los Angeles caused a sensation being caught after having paid graduates to sit their college placement tests using a fake ID.
Schools and colleges across the US, UK, Canada and other countries have independently banned mobile phones and iPods from their classrooms, and in Italy there is an outright national ban. In Tunisia measures were put in place that resulted in just two reported instances of cheating in the baccalaureate in 2008. Students were to leave any additional devices or documents outside the exam hall, show their national ID cards before and after the exam, and were not allowed to leave the hall under any circumstances without handing in their papers.
Behind student cheating
Most studies of students cheating rely on honest feedback from students. However, a study in 2006 by Sue Ravenscroft, an accounting professor at Iowa State University used actual evidence. Students were given a take home exam and an answer to one of the key questions was posted on-line. Students who accessed the webpage were traced without their knowledge. In one class from the study, 47 out of 64 students cheated.
Professor Ravenscroft found that although most students believe cheating is morally wrong, they rationalise it to themselves saying things like "what I did wasn’t cheating. I was learning, or I was helping someone, or I was simply taking advantage of technological opportunities."
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