The failure to pass professional training examinations has resulted in the suspension from duty of 40 police station heads in Guangdong Province, south China.

The police officers are among 1,000 police station heads in the province who attended the training course organized by the provincial public security authorities in Guangzhou, the provincial capital.

Liang Guoju, police chief in Guangdong, said the training program is aimed to improve the law enforcement capacity and services of the police in Guangdong, where some policemen do not have enough law knowledge and skills to perform their legal duties.

"Anybody who fails in the final examination will be suspended from their duties until they pass the make-up exam," Liang said.

According to the training program, 2,400 police station heads around the province will attend the professional training in the provincial capital on a rotation basis, and the other officers working in police stations will be trained by public security bureaus at lower levels.

(People’s Daily August 5, 2003)