Fairness underlined in upcoming college entrance exam
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State Councilor Liu Yandong on Saturday championed fairness in China's upcoming national college entrance examination, which will be held across the country from June 7 to 9.
Liu asked authorities to resort to technological means to stop cheating and said it was important to invite public supervision to ensure fair competition in the exam.
Liu's call came one day after China's education authority vowed "iron hand and zero tolerance" on cheating.
The Education Ministry said in a circular on Friday it would focus on cracking down on wireless communication devices this year, as well as use of the Internet and mobile phones during the exam.
Education authorities would make more efforts to crack down on organized cheating schemes in the make-or-break matriculation, it said.
About 9.33 million candidates will sit the national college entrance examination this year and more than 70 percent of them will be accepted into college.
The National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), or "gaokao," is the world's largest standardized test, taken by millions of Chinese students every year.
Despite watertight invigilation, however, a string of cheating scandals featuring the use of high-tech devices were still found in previous years.
Some students used wireless communication devices to obtain answers from people outside of the examination venues.
In 2009, teachers in Jilin's city of Songyuan were found to be selling wireless devices to students, which sparked intense public outrage.
