Hi-tech cheating devices busted during national exam

A group of 10 people have recently been sentenced from nine months to two and a half years' jail in Beijing for organizing more than 30 students in different exam places to cheat during a national qualification examination, Xinhua News Agency reported.

One of the accused, surnamed Guo, was arrested on the spot when he tried to bring a memory card with test question photos out of the testing venue.

Police have busted quite a few hi-tech cheating devices in recent years, such as answer displays disguised as erasers, gauze handkerchiefs with tiny display screens hidden inside, and wireless earphones the size of soy beans used to broadcast answers.

Liu Yan, a prosecuter from the People's Procuratorate in Beijing’s Tongzhou District, said organizers charged examinees from 15,000 (US$2,267) to 60,000 yuan to cheat in exams when talking about a case he once dealt with. He stressed that the answers provided might not even be correct.

Experts suggested police trace the production, transportation and sales of cheating devices, and that the credit and punishment system should also be improved as soon as possible to maintain exam order.