China Voice: Gaokao scams expose deeper issues

As millions of students sit the annual national college entrance test, "gaokao", a tiny group of cheats threaten the integrity and fairness of the world's biggest exam.

On Monday police captured at least one surrogate exam-taker in Jiangxi Province. A local newspaper reporter broke the cheating story with college students allegedly organized to sit the exam in place of the real examinees.

Despite the use of high-tech detection means, the perennial recurrence of these scams shows a lack of integrity in the student body which can only be dealt with through strict punishment for those behind the fraud.

Parent, often in cahoots with their offspring, set a bad example by paying for the stand-in. Surrogate exam-takers, usually college juniors, will pay a very heavy price for flouting the law -- dismissal from their learning institutions at the very least.

In middle schools teachers focus on cramming students with knowledge to improve their exam scores while neglecting their moral, political and social education, despite calls to change the traditional model to guarantee all-round development of young people.

In a recent trial of a cashier-free convenience store in Beijing, customers stole products or paid less. Is a lack of basic honesty among some adults being passed to the next generation?

The schools themselves are not without responsibility. Who teaches students to cherish and uphold virtue and the law?

Since ancient times, personal integrity has been the highest mark of a person in China. The Chinese government is streamlining administrative controls to encourage new businesses and innovation. Good character is key to the success of entrepreneurs. Those with bad credit records should be exposed to build a good social credit environment.

With its resolve to push the rule of law, China should also come up with more supporting rules and regulations with full, strict implementation of law to improve the social credit system.

Action is underway. In June last year, China unveiled a blueprint to build a national social credit system to assess individuals and government agencies on areas ranging from tax payment, local government bonds to judicial credibility.

In January, e-commerce giant Alibaba launched a credit-scoring system similar to the FICO score in the United States, the first after China's central bank opened personal credit reporting market to commercial institutions.

Integrity, equality and justice are the nation's core values. Both the government and the public need to do more to make everyone really treasure and uphold such values for the cause of a strong and prosperous nation. Endi