Chinese police have detained 34 suspects in the northeastern city of Songyuan for allegedly selling hi-tech devices to students to help them cheat in the country’s make-or-break college entrance exam which was held earlier this month.
Lai Jianhua, deputy secretary-general of the Songyuan municipal government in Jilin Province said the suspects were involved in 14 cases and police also confiscated 683 devices, such as receivers and earpieces.
The suspects included two female high school teachers from the No. 1 High School of the city’s Fuyu County. Police said they were charged with selling 27 cheating devices, including receivers, earpieces, chargers and batteries, to parents of students before the national test and made a profit of about RMB 400,000 ($58,823).
The police said that according to Chinese criminal law, the two teachers might face jail for up to three years if convicted of selling the devices.
China Economic Net reported that more than 10 million Chinese high school students sat the three-day exam, commonly known as ‘gaokao’ this year.
Although the number of candidates was down 3.8% from last year, the first decline in seven years, the exam was still the world’s largest in terms of number of entrants.