Students paid to sit college exam for rich kids

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University students were hired to take the national college entrance examination for candidates in central China's Henan Province, according to a China Central Television investigation.

It claimed a well-organized group was catering to children of the rich and powerful in small counties where family connections, or guanxi, held sway. Money often changes hands, CCTV said yesterday.

In such areas, the group could gain easy access to education officials and exam supervisors and bribe them to turn a blind eye to cheating, CCTV said. If the scandal came to light, police and local authorities would help cover it up, it alleged.

Authorities in Henan said last night that nearly 130 college students were paid by applicants' families to sit the exam. The finding was based on an examination of photographs and fingerprints of the applicants and video clips of exam centers.

In response to the TV report, the Ministry of Education yesterday ordered a blanket review of all exam papers involved in the case and urged severe punishment for officials and educators involved.

Meanwhile, the ministry said that students sitting the exam would have their scores nullified and college students hired for the cheating would be expelled.

In video recordings obtained by CCTV, one of the group's organizers, a "Teacher Li," said each test center could get at least 70,000 yuan (US$11,207) to allow cheating, with leading examiners paid nearly 20,000 yuan and passing thousands on to subordinates.

"As long as you don't mind spending money, you can build great guanxi," Li said in one video. "Just thrust the money into their hands."

He said he looked for qiangshou (literally "gunman"), the nickname for someone who takes tests for others, in universities in Wuhan, capital of Henan's neighboring province of Hubei.

Recruiting ads were written on toilet walls at several campuses, including the renowned Wuhan University, Wuhan University of Technology and Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, CCTV said.

In one video recorded secretly by a university student, Li said a qiangshou could get 20,000 to 50,000 yuan according to the reputation and ranking of his or her institute. About a month before the exams on June 7 and 8, the student met Li at a coffee shop near Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, CCTV said.

Li assured him there was no risk to being a qiangshou.

"We have run the business for three years and were never caught," he said, explaining that they only targeted certain counties in Henan because these were the places where money could smooth the way. These were areas where influential figures liked to "help" each other, Li said.

The group had made preparations for the fake exam sitters to pass identity checking systems by making fingerprint membranes for them to wear so as to fool fingerprint detectors which had been used in Henan since 2012, he said.

He also told the student not to be afraid that his face didn't match the real student's photograph. "Though you don't look similar to the candidate from the ID card, the examiner will still presume you were him. Why? It's all because of money."

On June 1, the student was told to sit a test at a classroom at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. There, he met four others. All passed the test to qualify as qiangshou.

Some of them told the student they were "veterans." They said they weren't afraid of being caught because "Teacher Zhang," another organizer, would take care of everything.

On one of the secret recordings, Zhang said he was a teacher at Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

On June 5, parents from Henan came to Wuhan to meet the five qiangshou, CCTV reported. They took the train to Zhengzhou, Henan's capital, where two were driven by their "temporary parents" to Qixian County and three to Tongxu County.

In one of the recordings, a mother told a qiangshou: "We have bribed examiners. Since they have received the money, they don't want to be caught. Also, they fear that we may speak out. Even the education officials wouldn't report it because it would be so shameful."

CCTV has reported its findings to the police.

Huazhong University of Science and Technology said it was checking Teacher Zhang's identity. Education authorities in Henan have also reported the matter to the police and begun their own investigation.

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