Hundreds of examinees were suspected of cheating in last week's national self-study college entrance examination, as China's education authorities have carried out an investigation into the case.

Tuesday's China Daily reported that a wave of "migrating examinees" crammed carriages of the train from Heilongjiang Province to Jilin Province in northeast China two days ahead of the exam.

Each of the examinees who traveled to Jilin were alleged to have received a detailed "mock test" paper from an "authoritative source" in Jilin, for which they paid a 200-yuan (25 US dollars) information fee each.

The examinees were also found to have been guaranteed "assistance" in the exam if they bought the mock test paper.

Two offices responsible for the self-study exams in Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces were ordered to submit a written report on the incident to the Ministry of Education.

The English-language newspaper quoted an official from the Heilongjiang Provincial Examination Recruitment Office as saying that the office was not at all blind of the incident. However, it is not illegal for examinees to take exams out of home province. "The office could do nothing about it" in advance, as the newspaper said.

Sun Rongjiang, deputy director of the office, said the office estimated that around 1,000 examinees may have been involved in the exam cheating. He denied the number may have exceeded 6,000, as some media reported.

The official admitted that some of the test papers may have been leaked before the exam.

The current punishments for examination cheaters include withholding the examination qualification or annulling the test result.

Source: Xinhua