Wang Yuanyuan

The Education Examinations Authority of Guangdong Province said that four students in the province who complained about the National College Entrance Examinations (NCEE) on their microblogs saw their scores of English listening and speaking canceled for making false allegations.

The authority said they had made false claims about the English listening and speaking test for this year’s NCEE because they had not done well in the test and their accusations had interfered in the order of the test.

The four students, who could not be identified, said on their Sina microblogs that their examination hall where the test was held several weeks ago was a mess and teachers even helped students complete their test.

“The students published the microblog post before the test had even been finished, so their actions had violated the rules and may affect other students. Meanwhile their activities had damaged the teachers’ reputation. As the four also admitted making false claims, we decided to cancel their scores according to the national rules,” said an official from the authority surnamed Dai.

However, many netizens thought the punishments were too harsh for the students.

“It is not right to spread rumors on the Internet, but it is not fair to cancel their NCEE scores just because of a microblog post. They have spent 12 years on the examinations and their entire futures depend on this,” said a netizen called Xiaoyuemm on Sina microblog.

The authority did not respond to the netizens’ objections.

“The students should be criticized or punished if sending out false information on the Internet, but it is not fair to cancel their scores because of this. If their microblgs had seriously harmed society and other students’ performances in the NCEE, they should face strict punishment. Otherwise, it was not necessary to do this to four teenagers,” said Zhan Zhongle, a well-known education professor at Beijing University.

“Meanwhile, if they had infringed teachers’ reputation, they should be punished according to related laws instead of the rules of the examination,” said Zhan.