BEIJING - China's Ministry of Education has vowed zero tolerance on cheating during postgraduate education entrance exams, promising special efforts to curb scams when the tests are held early next year.

Local educational authorities should strengthen supervision on key posts sponsoring the exam and enhance training of personnel so as to prevent exam leaks, the ministry said in a circular issued on Tuesday.

Exam venues should be equipped with enough devices to identify exam takers' identification cards as well as metal detectors to prevent use of ?high-tech telecommunications equipment for cheating, according to the circular.

Authorities are instructed to provide exam takers with standard stationery and make fingerprint identification instruments available in areas where the financial situation allows.

For those areas that cannot afford to provide stationery, authorities should conduct security checks on students arriving for the exams, according to the circular.

China's media have reported a series of cheating scams during national exams in recent years, ranging from identity theft to the use of high-tech telecommunications equipment.

Earlier this year, four people were detained by police for stealing national postgraduate education entrance exam papers from a confidential room in Xiangtan City in central China's Hunan Province and trading them for profit.

Chinese college students and graduates have to take written exams to enter postgraduate schools. The exams are usually held in January.

More than 1.65 million Chinese took it in January this year, up 9.6 percent year-on-year, the ministry's figures showed.