Public school cheating scandal sparks review into exam rules

Ofqual, England’s exams watchdog, says will investigate after questions were found to have been leaked by teachers who were also serving as examiners

Some pupils at Eton are reported to have received information on exam questions ahead of sitting the paper

(Getty)

Rules allowing teachers to set exam papers that their pupils will sit are to be reviewed following a cheating scandal involving several top public schools.

Ofqual, England’s exams watchdog, is looking at introducing new protections after questions were found to have been leaked by teachers who were also serving as examiners.

A deputy headmaster at Eton College left the school last week after an exam board concluded he had leaked questions to his colleagues. An investigation by Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), which set the exam, found Mo Tanweer, who was the chief examiner for the Pre-U economics paper, had told other teachers in his department what questions were likely to come up.

CIE is also investigating concerns about irregularities surrounding a Pre-U art history exam sat by students at Eton and Winchester College. Radley College and Charterhouse School have also been implicated in the scandal.

Pre-U’s are an A-level standard exam favoured by many of the UK’s private schools.

Ofqual said the practice of asking current teachers to set questions has “many benefits” but that access to the final exam paper must be “appropriately controlled” in order to prevent leaks.

The watchdog said it would “conduct a review of the rules under which serving teachers take part in writing and reviewing question papers, and the safeguards in place to prevent disclosure of confidential information”.

It added: “The involvement of serving teachers in the process of exam setting has many benefits and exam malpractice by teachers is rare.

“However, access to live materials must be appropriately controlled and risks to security minimised. We will investigate whether the safeguards in place are sufficiently robust and whether changes are needed.”

Eton’s headmaster, Simon Henderson, wrote to pupils and parents last week to admit that pupils had been the “inadvertent recipients of confidential information” and announce that Mr Tanweer had left the school.

Days later, Winchester College said it had suspended its head of history of art, Laurence Wolff, amid allegations that he had given students information on what exam questions would be included in two separate papers. Mr Wolff has since “retired” from the school.

Winchester said it had treated the matter “with the utmost seriousness” and “greatly regrets what has happened”.

“No boy was to blame for the exam irregularity, and the board used standard procedures to award final grades,” it said. “One teacher has retired from the school, and all those boys holding university offers dependent on a grade in art history have now had those offers confirmed by their first or second choice university.”

Meanwhile, a Radley College art teacher reportedly altered his GCSE students’ work and gave them advice in the middle of an exam, while Charterhouse School students were said to have been told exam questions in advance of sitting the paper.

The unnamed Radley teacher remains in post.

John Moule, Warden of Radley, told The Telegraph: “One minor breach was found to have taken place in the 2014 exam process – not in the exam itself – but the advantage to candidates was described by the board as negligible.

“The board’s advice was followed and departmental practice has been adjusted accordingly.”

Charterhouse is understood to have been investigated by CIE but cleared of wrongdoing.