Threshold values

The annual national college entrance examination is still considered the fairest system of its kind since the scores alone determine whether a student should be enrolled or not. It is also an important channel of social mobility for those in the lower strata.

However, cheating in different ways, machinations characterized by abuse of power in particular, are eroding this system. The cases reported last month revealed how three candidates who did not pass the examination or even sit for the exams entered the universities as imposters. This should alert us to the principles of justice and fairplay being undermined.

Less than a week before this year's examinations, three people involved in one of the cases have been punished, according to the investigation team of Hunan province. The local police officer - who had used his connections to forge documents for his daughter to impersonate one of her classmates to get into the university - was arrested. His two accomplices, a teacher and another police officer, were given disciplinary penalties.