Ofqual: School-level exam cheating hits three-year high

The number of schools and colleges rapped for exam cheating more than doubled last year, taking incidents back to pre-pandemic levels.

Ofqual data published today reveals there were 145 cases where a whole school, college or department was reprimanded for malpractice in relation to exams this summer.

That’s up 163 per cent on the 55 cases recorded in both 2023 and 2022. This summer, 79.6 per cent of these cases involved maladministration, up from 66 per cent in 2023.

However, this accounts for a small proportion of the more than 20,000 state schools in England. It is also broadly in line with pre-pandemic, with 135 cases in 2018 and 120 in 2019.

Proven cases of students cheating also jumped by 5.9 per cent, rising from 4,900 cases in summer 2023 to 5,190 this year.

But the number of cases remains tiny when compared with the 17.6 million GCSE, AS and A level entries this summer.

Instances of malpractice by schools or colleges can range from “actions intended to give an unfair advantage to students in an exam or assessment to ignorance of, or inappropriate application of, the assessment regulations”, Ofqual guidance states.

Where there is evidence malpractice is the result of a serious management failure, an exam board can apply sanctions against a whole department or the school or college.

Staff malpractice also ticks up

The number of cases of malpractice involving school or college staff also increased compared with the previous year.

There were 250 cases this summer, up 8.6 per cent on 230 in 2023.

But again, this is only a small proportion of the more 365,000 full time equivalent teachers and support staff in state funded secondary schools in England.

More than half of these cases involved maladministration, while just over a third (28.6 per cent) related to improper assistance of candidates.

Mobiles still involved in bulk of cases

Some 41.4 per cent of student cheating cases involved mobile phones, which remained the most common rule breach, but the proportion of penalties has dropped.

The 2,145 penalties dished out this summer was down slightly on the 2,180 the previous year, when this accounted for 44.5 per cent of cases.