Schools and educational authorities across the country are making final preparations to ensure that the upcoming national college entrance exam go smoothly and in a fair way, an official with the Ministry of Education said Wednesday.

The ministry joined hands with local authorities of education, public security and telecommunications to ensure the order of the exam and guard against cheating, said Liu Junyi, vice director of the exam center under the ministry, at a press conference Wednesday.

"People who set exam papers have been completely cut connections with the outside world, and papers were stored in special rooms under multiple electronic monitoring," Liu said.

The widely-concerned exam, which is held annually on June 7 and 8, has seen an increase in cheating cases with high-tech devices in recent years. Educational authorities have to come up with stricter rules and high-tech countermeasures for the fairness of the exam.

In China, a large number of parents believe college should be the first step to success and many students pin their hopes on the exam.

A total of 9.57 million high school students have registered to take the exam this year, a slight decrease from last year. More than 68 percent of them will get into college as planned, up nearly 7 percent from last year, according to a notice issued Wednesday by the ministry.

According to Liu, up to 25 provincial-level regions across the country have set up online inspection system so that exam venues can be monitored on screens.

Telecommunications departments across the country would also send staff and devices to help with the monitoring, Liu said.

The ministry also ordered local authorities to work out plans of emergency responses against natural disasters or extreme weather during the exam, Liu said.

In another notice, the ministry urged colleges nationwide to publish recruitment information timely and in a transparent way.