Teachers and Students Involved in GCSE Cheating

Students smuggling phones into exams are the cause of a sudden rise in the number of cheaters caught during last exam season, according to official data.

The figures also showed that teachers and staff being involved in the malpractice had doubled since then too. Ofqual, the exam regulator for England, said the most common category of malpractice was the introduction of ‘unauthorised materials’ into exam venues. It said:

“In most cases, this was a mobile phone or other electronic communications device,”

Unauthorized materials have accounted for half of all the students who were given penalties for cheating. Nearly 80% of those cases involved a mobile phone in some way. Plagiarism was also another category, which accounted for 17% of cases.

Ofqual did say that the number of cheating cases remained low despite the rise of about 25%.

What is most concerning however, would be the inclusion of teachers and other staff being involved in these cases. The number rose by more than double last year, from 360 to 895, after a change in response by the examination boards which offer A-levels and GCSEs.

In more than half of the cases, teachers were given written warnings, with 185 having to undergo mandatory training. 90 were barred from involvement in exams however. Nearly a third of teachers were teachers giving ‘improper assistance’ to candidates.

635 students were given a warning, with a further 490 having their papers scrapped entirely.

Despite the rise in cheating in exams, the number of schools and colleges doling out punishments fell substantially from 15 in 2016 to 120 last year.

Listen people, it might seem like the easy way out to just cheat your way through. But is it worth it? Potentially having marks deducted or your entire exam scrapped?

Ask yourself that when the exam officers ask you to turn in your phone.