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The results of the college entrance examination for another year were announced, the students trembled to check the scores, and the parents waited excitedly.
When the dust settles, the college entrance examination paper has basically completed its mission.
You have successfully graduated from college, and you may have started a social animal life; But where will the high school exam papers and answer sheets end up after giving full play to their value?
When the bell rings at the end of the exam, countless people will say goodbye to the answer sheet that carries their dreams. The invigilator will immediately take it away, wrap it up, and send it to the exam office. Immediately afterwards, as if in a blockbuster movie, it was escorted by a special service convoy to the storage place of the provincial marking center for scanning, and then locked into the answer sheet storage room of the provincial education examination agency [1].
Before the college entrance examination, the test papers are also stored here [2]. The answer sheet storage room is like a "prison" for holding test papers, and the room structure is made of steel or brick, equipped with iron doors, iron windows, alarm and video surveillance equipment.
Behind each iron gate, there are two locks, equipped with round-the-clock watch and patrol. And those surveillance data will be stored for at least half a year. These measures are mainly aimed at preventing the answers from being stolen, burned, damp, and gnawed by rats [2].
When the answer sheet is scanned, the candidate's test number, subject and other information will be replaced by a randomly generated secret number[1] / Picture Worm Creativity
In order to ensure the credibility and fairness of the college entrance examination results, each step of the above processing of the college entrance examination answer sheet must be authentic and credible and leave traces.
In 2018, the news that "four parents in Henan questioned the transfer of candidates' college entrance examination answer sheets" appeared on the Internet. After reviewing the surveillance video and investigating and verifying, the test papers and answer sheets of the four candidates were operated in accordance with the procedures and specifications in key links such as recycling, escorting, sealing, leaving the warehouse, and scanning, and there was no artificial recontracting[3]. Without surveillance video and a clear chain of evidence that is defined step-by-step, it is difficult to verify compliance at every step.
After the results of the college entrance examination are announced, the answer sheets will be kept for half a year[4] because they have one last bit of value, which is to facilitate the review of the results.
There are some differences in the score review rules in each province, but the difference is not large, and the specific review content is generally "whether the candidate's relevant information is correct, whether the score statistics are incorrect, whether the answer sheet is omitted, whether the answer sheet is scanned, etc."[5][6][7][8], the test paper will not be re-evaluated, and the leniency of the scoring rules is not within the scope of the review[5][6].
In addition, the provincial education examination agency will organize a special person to conduct a review, and candidates will not have access to their answer sheets[6][7].
There are also many candidates who have applied for the disclosure of test information such as answer sheets and even filed lawsuits, and the final legal judgment is not to disclose them out of order to prevent power-for-money transactions and to ensure the progress of the recruitment [9].
Candidates need to bring the admission ticket to their school or registration point to submit a written application for rechecking the scores
When the storage period expired, and the college entrance examination papers and answer sheets were left unattended, they came to the end of their lives and faced the end of being destroyed [10]. In fact, their "status" had already changed before they were destroyed.
In China, state secrets can be classified into three levels: top secret, secret, and secret [11]. Before the exam, the high school examination papers were classified as the highest top secret [12]. Even if the results have been announced, the college entrance examination papers and answer sheets are still confidential. Although they are no longer state secrets, they are also working secrets[9] and are restricted to a certain range of personnel[9][12].
However, after the college entrance examination admission work is over, it is not only useless to continue to keep the test papers and answer sheets, but also waste space and increase management costs.
At this time, the answer sheet will still not be sent back to the student, in addition to being a "work secret", because the cost of issuing it is too high. If tens of millions of answers are to be transported from the centralized place back to the schools and distributed, the workload is huge and the cost performance is too low.
After the college entrance examination, students can handle books and test papers in a variety of ways, including throwing them away, tearing them up, selling them, or donating them
Therefore, considering the above reasons, the centralized destruction of college entrance examination papers and answer sheets has naturally become a necessary link.
More than 20 years ago, when the destruction system was not yet perfect, they may have been "burned in a river dam with kerosene" [13]. Now, there are strict regulations and a perfect workflow for the destruction of classified documents. In order to destroy the college entrance examination papers and answer sheets, the provincial education examination agency must first go through the relevant procedures and report to the local secrecy bureau for review and approval[14][15].
After completing the formalities, the Secrecy Bureau is responsible for sending them to its own destruction center, or supervising the staff of the provincial educational institution to send them to the enterprises with which it has signed a destruction agreement [16] to prepare for centralized destruction.
If the secret carrier of paper medium is sent to the paper mill for destruction, it shall be sent to the unit designated by the confidentiality department for destruction, and shall not be sold to the scrap acquisition station and private purchasers
As a secret carrier of paper media, in addition to being incinerated in the college entrance examination answer sheet, it can also be crushed into slag by a shredder, or regenerated by molten pulp and recycled [17][18]. Regardless of which method is used, professional equipment that meets confidentiality requirements is used [14][17].
During the destruction process, staff sent by the Secrecy Bureau and provincial educational institutions will be present to supervise the sale[14][16]. After the end of the service, the sales supervisor can only leave after receiving the sales receipt issued by the destruction agency [16]. In addition, the registration and approval records of the destruction of college entrance examination papers and answer sheets should also be kept for future reference [19].
Every step from birth to death, the college entrance examination papers and answer sheets are strictly controlled.
Although they will be destroyed in the end, the shining fire is not a proof that you have also burned and struggled.
Written by Wu Xiaoyu
[1] Wuhan Municipal Bureau of Secrecy. (2023). After the college entrance examination, where did our answer sheets go?
[2] Ministry of Education, Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, Ministry of Public Security, & State Secrets Bureau. (2004). Regulations on the Security and Confidentiality of National Educational Examinations.
[3] Henan Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission. (2018). There is no phenomenon of "parents questioning the transfer of answer sheets" and there is no artificial adjustment of test papers and answer sheets.
[4] Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. (2009). Regulations on the Administration of the Unified Examination for Admission to Colleges and Universities.
[5] Shenzhen Admissions and Examination Office. (2023). Notice on the release of the results of the 2023 general college entrance examination candidates in Guangdong Province.
[6] Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Admissions and Examination Institute. (2023). Candidates in our district can apply for a college entrance examination score review from June 24th to 25th.
[7] Hunan Provincial People's Government. (2021). Have an objection to the gaokao scores? You can apply for a review!
[8] Hainan Provincial Examination Bureau. (2023). Hainan Province 2023 General College Entrance Examination Candidates Results Release and Inquiry Guidelines.
[9] Cao M, Liu X, & Guo Fei. (2017). Between Disclosure and Confidentiality: On the Reconstruction of the Judicial Identification Path of National Examination Information: Starting from the Confidentiality of College Entrance Examination Answer Sheets. In Research on Deepening Judicial Reform and Administrative Trial Practice (II)——Collected Papers of the 28th Academic Symposium of National Courts.
[10] Xinxiang Municipal Education Bureau. (2023). Henan College Entrance Examination Result Inquiry Time Confirmed.
[11] Regulations for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Guarding State Secrets. (2014).
[12] Provisions on State Secrets and the Specific Scope of State Secrets in Educational Work. (2001).
[13] State Secrets Bureau. (2019). Yan Xiaolin: Loyalty, Interpreted in 30 Years.
[14] State Secrets Bureau. (2015). Destruction of classified carriers. Confidential work (04), 19.
[15] Zhu Fangzhou. (2015). Zhejiang: Exploration and Practice of Destruction Management of Classified Carriers. Confidential Work, 2015(05), 24-25.
[16] Guangzhou Municipal State Secrets Bureau. (2023). Workflow for the destruction of classified carriers.
[17] Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China for Secrecy and State Secrecy Bureau. (2001). Provisions on the Management of Secrecy of State Secret Carriers.
[18] Ding Desheng. (2019). Appraisal and Destruction of Organ Archives - Interpretation of the Provisions on the Management of Organ Archives No. 10. China Archives (09), 30-31.
[19] Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China. (2005). What are the provisions for the destruction of carriers of state secrets?
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