Probe into leak of exam answers begins

(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2008-10-28 09:22

The Ministry of Education yesterday began an investigation after an education authority reported that test papers for five of seven national law examinations were leaked.

The Beijing Education Examination Authority confirmed that the exam papers for national tests in civil law, corporate law, legal instruments, civil procedure and environmental law were leaked, Beijing Times reported yesterday.

However it was hard to say if a second examination should be set until the investigation was concluded, the authority of Beijing education examination said.

The leak was reported by a lawyer surnamed Liu, who teaches law in some non-governmental universities, and his student, Wang Ming.

Liu bought the answers to seven examinations for 150 yuan (US$21.90) from a man called Zheng Xin after he had been introduced by his students. The two then reported the affair to the authority along with evidence including mobile phone messages and recordings.

After checking the exam papers, Liu found the answers to the five tests he bought from Zheng were correct.

Liu said Zheng had been cautious and only agreed to sell the answers to friends of the acquaintances.

They agreed never to do deals in public and the money was usually paid through middlemen.

Wang told the newspaper that the leaked answers started to appear about a week beforehand and the answers for all seven exams could be bought for 100 yuan.

"Some of my friends got the answers from their teachers or classmates," Wang said.

Liu and Wang told the newspaper that after they found answers to several exams in April had been leaked they reported this to the Beijing authority in May.

"But there was no outcome as we didn't keep any evidence," Liu said.

The Beijing examination authority said it had checked all the examination areas, as well as printing and transport facilities across the city and had not found any problems, the newspaper quoted an authority official as saying.

"There are cameras everywhere during the exams and since it's a national exam held across the country, we can do very little if the source of the leak is outside Beijing," the official told the newspaper.