Opinion

China to Use Aerial Drones to Monitor Entrance Exams

Note: This article is hosted here for archival purposes only. It does not necessarily represent the values of the Iron Warrior or Waterloo Engineering Society in the present day.

Now at the University of Waterloo, food and labelled drinks are not permitted to be brought into examination sites. The primary reason for this new rule is that these things can distract people, and secondly, these can be used as tools to help students cheat on their exams. I think that this is pretty fair, But, in a country on the other side of the world, drones and spy gear, among other things, are being used by exam proctors to catch students cheating in university entrance exams. Now I think that is overkill, but t also makes me wonder why this might be necessary.

Due to the large population in China, each year millions of high school students have aspirations to become the new Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, etc, etc. The only problem standing in their way is the requirement of a university degree. Getting into university here in Canada may seem difficult, but in reality it isn’t. In Canada, you don’t have to compete with millions of other students graduating secondary school. The weight of this motivates a massive amount of cheating; those exams determine where your position in society will be.

The proctors know that the students will go to great lengths to cheat, and so, due to the fact that rapidly evolving technology is making it increasingly difficult to police the students, drones were brought in to watch over the them. These bots have scanners that ensure that no type of electronics devices with transmitters that can easily aid students are being used by the exam-takers. If anyone is trying such a tactic, the drones will alert the proctors and the student will be reprimanded.

This, however, does beg the question as to why the students will go to such lengths to cheat that drones are required in order to ensure no cheating occurs. It is because of the increasing pressure that the students feel; placed onto them by their parents and the knowledge that failure is not an option. It is because those exams are the only way to get into university. Failure on the exam means no degree, terrible job prospects, and a life of regret. Maybe it really isn’t the fault of the students that so many of them are willing to cheat. Maybe it’s just because of the huge pressure that the exams place on the students. Just some food for thought.

1 Comment

  1. Arthur Yip

    Examinations, education system, and society are under great pressure to evolve. China should open more university seats and remove other barriers to university, in order to relieve the pressure of the secondary school graduation exam. Regarding “difficulty of getting into university,” Chinese students may “compete with millions” but there are also 31+ million university students in China – http://en.people.cn/90001/98649/7315789.html. It’s the ratio of secondary student graduates vs. seats/admissions that would be relevant.

    Also, there are many things standing in the way of people aspiring to
    be Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and high exam scores or a university
    degree is not one of them.

Leave a Reply