China students nab cheats on civil service test: state media

A group of Chinese primary school students who were tasked with supervising a civil service test proved their worth by catching 25 exam cheats, state media said Thursday.

The 18 students in northwest China's Gansu province uncovered the cheats while administering the test to 265 candidates for positions as judges, prosecutors and police officers, the Lanzhou Morning News said.

The students were brought in by the Liangzhou district government to supervise the test to ensure "openness and transparency," the paper said.

Other supervisors included officials and middle-school teachers, it reported, but added that the pupils were solely responsible for catching the cheaters.

They "executed the rules impartially" and achieved "unexpected results" by catching the test-cheats on the spot, it said.

Those caught cheating were awarded scores of zero and expelled from testing, it quoted officials saying.

"I did not think too much and only wanted to seriously complete the task handed down by the teachers and ... be an honest girl," it quoted one of the young supervisors, a girl, as saying.

The report did not detail the ages of the children.

It quoted a previous adult supervisor as saying identifying cheaters was relatively easy but that they often turn a blind eye out of fear that the test-takers could seek revenge.

There are numerous reports every year of people cheating on civil servant exams, as a government job is seen as guaranteeing a stable and relatively high income and benefits.

State media said more than 1,000 applicants were caught cheating on an exam late last year, with some being fed answers through earpieces and wireless transmitters.