One of the top ranked students in the national college entrance examination in Chongqing may not be able to enter university after lying about his ethnic status.

He Chuanyang, who attended Nankai Middle School, scored 659, which was the highest in the municipality and earned him a place at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing.

Teacher Zhou Bin was very excited to know that his student He Chuanyang was the top ranked student in the national college entrance examination in Chongqing this year. [Photo from Chengdu Commercial News]

He and 30 other students were found to have falsely claimed 20 additional test points because of their "ethnic minority status", the local admission office said.

The final results will be released later after further investigation, the office told Beijing Youth yesterday.

Feng Zhiyue, head of Peking University's admission branch in Chongqing, told Beijing Evening News that the school admission office would decide whether to enroll the students who cheated on the exam.

The admission office of Peking University could not be contacted yesterday. Qiu Ke, head of the municipal admission office, told China National Radio yesterday that the validity of his score is still under discussion.

Xu Mei, Ministry of Education spokesperson, told Xinhua the final result would depend on the local investigation.

According to a warning released in April, students who changed their heritage would be disqualified from exams or enrollment and those who had already entered universities would be expelled.

The boy's father, He Yeda, head of Wushan county admission office, told Beijing Youth that he feels regret for the wrongdoing and is ready for any punishment, but that his son knew nothing about the ethnicity change.

"It was my sister who changed Chuanyang's household registration before 2007 and I was not head of the admission office then," Xinhua quoted the father as saying yesterday.

The son said he was not sure what his ethnicity was because his grandparents lived like minority Tujia people.

His mother, Lu Linqiong, is deputy director of the organization department of the Wushan Party committee.

The case has provoked many comments from netizens, some of whom have shown sympathy for the boy and blame the current education system.

"With the severe competition for college entrance and increasing point-add categories, parents and students will not give up any possibility to get bonus points," Lan Yuhong, a student in Beijing Sports University, said yesterday.

Xia Xueluan, a sociologist at Peking University, said yesterday that parents should understand that entering good universities does not mean a successful future.

This is not the first example of students falsely claiming ethnic minority status for the examination. In July 2007, three top scorers for both Han and minority groups were refused entry to universities because they had lied about their ethnicity.

(China Daily June 29, 2009)