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It is therefore hardly surprising that the latest form of cheating to be exposed – students lying about their ethnicity to gain affirmative action benefits for college entrance – has drawn little condemnation from society. More than half those polled online expressed sympathy for students who resorted to this tactic in order to get into college.
After the national college entrance exam was administered to 10.2 million students in June, the Ministry of Education announced that more than 2,200 students were caught cheating during the exam. Apart from that, another type of cheating was discovered – some students had altered their ethnic status from Han Chinese to one of the minority ethnic groups in order to benefit from a policy that grants minorities extra marks on the exam.
The matter came to public attention when the media reported that 31 students in the southwestern city of Chongqing had resorted to this tactic – including the city’s top student. Ironically, this student’s score was high enough to get him into the country’s best university without the extra marks, an opportunity he lost when the lie was exposed.
He Chuanyang, 17, had already received a letter of acceptance from the elite Beijing University after his original score of 659 points – the highest score in Chongqing – was announced two weeks ago. But when his name turned up on the list of 31 students that had falsely identified themselves as members of the Tujia minority, the university canceled his acceptance.
The boy’s father has been removed from his position as head of Wushan County’s Office of Student Recruitment, and his mother, a local Communist Party official, has been suspended from duty. The parents reportedly had changed their son’s ethnic status in 2006 to assure him preferential treatment on the college exam.
Fifteen local officials in charge of residential registration and ethnic affairs were disciplined after the matter was exposed, local media reported. Also, Chongqing authorities on Tuesday finally decided to cancel the qualifications for college admission of all 31 of the “fake Tujia” students. Except for He Chuanyang, their names were not made public, but state media said many of them were the children of influential officials.
Had the Chongqing authorities not canceled the students’ qualifications, they would have been in violation of central government regulations, Beijing lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan told UPI Asia.com.
The ministries of education and public security issue a notice every year ahead of the exam warning that making false claims to gain extra points will result in cancellation of qualifications for college admission. Minority students are given an extra 20 points, as are other students deemed to have exceptional talent in a particular subject or sport.
There have been past reports of students paying for the required certificates as proof of special talent. After investigation, most of those “talented students” proved to be from families with powerful backgrounds, local media said.
Nevertheless, the majority of respondents in a public opinion poll felt that He Chuanyang, as a minor, should not be punished for what they saw as his parents’ mistake. Since his original score qualified him for a top school, most commentators and even academics felt he should be allowed to continue his studies.
Those who disagreed with this view seemed to feel that no matter how common lying and cheating may be in society, official policy should still hold people to a higher standard. This is clearly a minority view, however.
