When all is said and done ， over 9.3 million students will have taken
this year's gao kao.

    The Ministry of Education says examinees， who are found cheating
or plagiarizing ， will be disqualified from the exam and will be prohibited
from signing up for next year's exam as well.

    Zhang Yakun is a teacher from a junior high school in Beijing.

    She says punishment is not an effective way to stop students from
cheating.

    "Severe punishment on the behavior is effective. But sometimes the
teacher ， the school and the parent would rather not believe that the
students are cheating ， because they attach high expectations on exam
results."

    Zhang Yakun says for many students， cheating is like drunk driving.
They know it is prohibited， but they feel lucky if they escape getting
caught.

    "Normally when I catch a student cheating ， I don't see a repentant，
but a face saying "I'm so unlucky.' Deep in their mind， they don't think
it is really something seriously wrong."

    Wu Zunmin ， a professor of education from East China Normal University，
agrees.

    He says students should not be the only ones to blame. Schools should
promote honesty. More importantly ， the whole society should take responsibility.

    "Being honest ， like other moral standards ， cannot be fully accepted
by students only through school education ， especially when they see
dishonest behaviors in society. When they see there are many ways to achieve
good academic results not by hard studying but through various cheating
methods ， they choose to cheat."

    The expert adds that society should not take academic merit as the
only yardstick of success. Moral quality is more important， especially
for students.

    For CRI ， this is He Fei.