BEIJING, April 19 (Xinhua) -- A senior education official on Thursday ruled out the possibility that national college entrance examination paper designers could leak this year's exam papers on the internet ahead of the exams in early June.

As the annual national college entrance exam nears, some "real" exam papers said to be the work of the country's official exam designers have emerged on the internet, attracting wide attention.

Dai Jiagan, director of the National Education Examination Authority (NEEA) under the Ministry of Education, said college entrance exam papers are confidential. Anyone who steals, discloses or buys exam papers will be sentenced to up to seven years behind bars, according to the Chinese Criminal Law.

He said this year's exam papers are currently being written. The people who design the college entrance exam papers are professors and teachers selected from certain universities and middle schools. They are "confined" in certain places during the exam conception phase and hand over their mobile phones and computers during the process.

After the exam papers have been written, the exam designers are "confined" for a further 30 to 40 days for the sake of confidentiality.

"It's impossible that this year's exam papers could have emerged on the internet in advance. Those so-called exam papers on the net will only mislead students," he said.

To ensure exam confidentiality, the department monitors not only the design phase but also the printing, transport and distribution of the exam papers, Dai said.

The National College Entrance Exam is one of the most important examinations in China because it is the only chance for high school students to get access to higher education.

Last year, 9.5 million students sat for the exam and only 2.6 million secured enrollment to universities or colleges.

Because of the fierce competition, some examinees resort to cheating. Last year, 3,000 were found cheating in the National College Entrance Exam -- using mobile phones or other high-tech gadgets.

Taking advantage of examinees' desperate need for high marks in the exam, some unscrupulous people have sold so-called "real" exam papers on the internet in recent years. Each year the Ministry of Education warns students not to be fooled.