Exam Cheats

Posted on 10 May 2009.

With the ever increasing pressure of competition among students in China.  More and more are turning to cheating to try and help them get ahead...

"Eight parents and teachers who used hi-tech equipment to help children cheat in Chinese college entrance exams have been sent to prison. They were given sentences of six months to three years after being found guilty of obtaining state secrets. Three groups were found operating in just one school in Zhejiang province," according to a BBC report.

"One group of parents, some of them local officials, persuaded a teacher to fax them the questions once the exam got under way. They had organised six university students to answer them. They sent these answers using mobile phones to their children in the exam hall who were wearing tiny earpieces.

Another man had employed more high-tech equipment. He bribed a student taking the same exam as his son to get him the questions using a miniature scanner. He had nine teachers on standby to answer them. He then transmitted the answers back to the two boys taking the exam. A third scam involved a teacher at the school who had charged hundreds of dollars to get the answers to students but whose equipment failed.

The cheats were discovered when police nearby detected the efforts to transmit the answers to the students on their radios. In court, one of the fathers involved said they had had high hopes for their children and the exams were vital for them to secure good futures."

Reports like the above appear regularly in the Chinese media. Such cheating is not unusual and it seems that students will take any opportunity given them to improve their marks. Forty-nine Chinese students were expelled from Newcastle University in the UK at the end of last year after it emerged that the certificates they used to gain entry were forged. In France, police and the education ministry are currently investigating claims that hundreds of Chinese students have bought French degrees.

Pray against this widespread acceptance of using immoral means to gain better qualifications. May there be a real turnaround, so that those who cheat are condemned for their behaviour.

Pray for teachers and others in positions of authority in the education system. Pray that they might be willing to stand up for truth and refuse to accept bribes to assist the cheats.

Coming from a non-Christian standpoint, many Chinese cannot see a good reason not to take advantage of opportunities to cheat. Pray for Christian believers to shine as beacons of righteousness that attract others to follow the ways of the Lord.