[Screen capture from China's state broadcaster CCTV]
[Screen capture from China's state broadcaster CCTV]

More than 140,000 applicants who sat a Chinese public-sector recruitment exam for roughly 3,000 positions will have to retake the test after authorities uncovered large-scale, organized cheating. The scandal — which forces even candidates who played no part in the misconduct to sit the exam again — has simultaneously exposed the intense competition for public-sector jobs in China and reignited debate over hiring fairness.

Xinhua, China's state news agency, reported that the Henan Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security recently confirmed large-scale, organized cheating in the written examination for "Sanzhi Yifu," a rural service program. Authorities voided all test scores and scheduled a retake for Aug. 22.

Henan Province had planned to recruit 3,082 people through the program this year, yet more than 140,000 candidates applied — roughly 45 applicants for every available position.

The decision to invalidate all results has drawn complaints from candidates who had no involvement in the cheating, some of whom had already begun preparing for interviews when the entire exam was nullified.

"Sanzhi Yifu" is a government program that sends university graduates to rural areas to work in education, agriculture, healthcare and related fields. It is widely popular among young Chinese for offering relatively stable employment.

Hiring controversies have surfaced in other parts of the country as well. In Leizhou, Guangdong Province, an investigation recently found that a vice principal had leaked the personal information of the top-scoring candidate in a teacher recruitment exam and pressured that person to withdraw from subsequent stages, including the interview, in order to advance the second-place finisher.

In Foshan, Guangdong Province, separate allegations of unfairness in a teacher recruitment process emerged after it became known that multiple top-scoring written-exam candidates had either failed or withdrawn from interviews while lower-ranked applicants were admitted in large numbers. Education authorities suspended the hiring process and launched an investigation.

Analysts say the backdrop to these public-sector hiring scandals is China's severe youth unemployment crisis. The number of university graduates this year reached a record 12.7 million. Competition for stable jobs has grown even fiercer as graduates from the previous year who remain unemployed, along with students returning from overseas, have also entered the job market.

Demand for civil service positions continues to climb. About 3.7 million people applied for China's national civil service examination held late last year, a record high, with an average competition ratio of 97 to 1.

Chu Zhaohui, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Educational Sciences, said lax hiring management at some institutions was creating a "gray zone of power," and that similar controversies could only be reduced by making the entire process — from job postings through written tests, interviews and final selections — open and transparent.


kacew@heraldcorp.com