Last night,about 10pm, I received a phone call from one of the class monitors who had attended the meeting (there had been 4 class monitors not present at the meeting and he volunteered to inform them of the meeting outcome and of their responsibility in the matter).

He said, "Roz, I have something I want to say to you. I have been bad. I was one of the students who took the test for a poorer English speaking student. He was from my province and he asked me to take the test because he would surely fail and I felt I wanted to help him."

He actually never got to take the exam because by yesterday, the foreign teachers were wise to what was going on and so, vigilent.

I don't condone the cheating but I think I understand the cause of it. To a greater extent than in the west, here in China at least, the cause has a lot to do with survival. Here, the child of the one child family has to eventually provide for looking after parents (no old age pension for these folks) and are all under huge pressures to get the results so they do it however they can. Another point is that my school offers Scholarships and money to the highest overall scores, so again - survival.

All this doesn't make it right, it just makes it the way it is, so far.

I'm not sure what action will make a difference. Maybe when the students get that compromising themselves is to their disadvantage. That can't be forced down their necks, only offered to inform them. Ultimately, it's up to them.

If I ever nut out the perfect way of going about that, I'll let you know. Baby steps in and don't make it personal is probably a good start.

Rosalind