Education authorities in China are stepping up security measures for this year's national college entrance examination, or gaokao, requiring candidates wearing glasses to undergo additional inspections to prevent the use of new smart devices and other high-tech cheating tools.

Several provinces have issued reminders ahead of the exam, which will begin on Sunday, stressing that eyeglasses brought into examination rooms will be subject to inspection.

The Guangdong provincial education examinations authority said in a notice released on Tuesday that candidates wearing or carrying glasses should remove them during security screening and place them on a desk for inspection by exam supervisors under video surveillance.

The Shanghai municipal education examinations authority issued a similar notice earlier, urging students wearing prescription glasses to cooperate with proctors during pre-exam inspections.

In Fujian province, examination officials said during a recent training conference that security checks would be enhanced to ensure that cheating devices cannot be brought into or used in examination rooms. Proctors will pay particular attention to the size and shape of candidates' glasses to guard against emerging technologies.

Smart glasses equipped with cameras, wireless connectivity and artificial intelligence capabilities have become increasingly available to consumers worldwide, raising concerns about their potential misuse during examinations.

Examination security measures for the gaokao have been steadily upgraded in recent years across China, with many testing sites adopting a combination of intelligent security gates and manual inspections.

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region have this year taken a "zero-tolerance" stance toward smart glasses and other electronic devices. Students who normally wear smart glasses have been instructed to prepare conventional prescription glasses before the exam.

Similar requirements have been issued in provinces including Hebei and Guizhou, where candidates who regularly use smart glasses have been told to switch to ordinary optical glasses during the examination period.

According to the measures for handling violations in national education examinations, bringing devices capable of sending or receiving information into an examination room constitutes cheating, regardless of whether the devices are actually used. Violators will have the scores for all registered subjects invalidated.

The Ministry of Education urged candidates to strictly comply with examination rules and maintain academic integrity, citing a case from the 2022 gaokao whereby a candidate deliberately bypassed security screening and illegally brought a mobile phone into the examination room.

The student photographed the test paper and posted the images in a QQ chat group in an attempt to obtain answers. The candidate was promptly identified by police and dealt with in accordance with relevant regulations.

The ministry warned students not to take chances, noting that prohibited items found inside examination rooms will be treated as cheating offenses even if they remain unused. "Do not destroy your future for a moment of carelessness," the ministry said in its advisory to students preparing for this year's exam.