Fifteen officials and 31 students have been punished following revelations of cheating in the national college entrance examination.

Authorities in Chongqing municipality revealed the 15 officials would be punished for falsifying the ethnicity of the 31 students, who will be refused entry to any university this year, Xinhua reported.

The officials, including the deputy magistrate of Shizhu county Tang Ping, public security officials and ethnicity officials, were formally warned by the Communist Party of China (CPC) or removed from their administrative posts, according to a statement from the CPC's Chongqing Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Some of the officials are parents of the students.

Students from ethnic minorities are awarded an additional 20 points in the cutthroat exam.

On Tuesday, the office in charge of the national college entrance examination in Chongqing refused media requests to name the 31 students on the grounds it could harm their futures.

This led to fierce criticism by netizens and prompted officials to issue the statement that 15 officials had been charged and 31 students refused admission to university.

It remained firm, however, in its decision not to reveal the students' names.

"Public surveillance, particularly via the Internet, had forced the government to respond quickly to the media's demand to publicize the punishment for cheats," Xia Xueluan, a sociologist at Peking University, told China Daily yesterday.

"The local authorities conceded to public critics and released another statement later on Tuesday, due to the pressure from netizens and media," Xia said.

The cheating scandal was exposed after He Chuanyang, the top scoring student in Chongqing, was found to have lied about his ethnicity.

As a result, he was denied admission to prestigious Peking University.

His father, He Yeda, was removed from his post as head of Wushan County's college entrance examination office. He's mother Lu Lingqiong was removed from the county's organization department.

The Ministry of Education on Tuesday said in a statement that the local authority's decision was reasonable in regards to punishing officials and protecting students.

Duan Chen, a 26-year-old Beijinger, was among the increasing number of netizens who made critical comments on Tuesday on sina.com, a news website in China.

"Those 18-year-old students have been able to take responsibility for their mistakes," he told China Daily yesterday.

"How could people know that the 31 students are really disqualified from admission by any university this year without their names being made public?"

(China Daily July 9, 2009)