How schools are cheating in exams

SCHOOLS are cheating the exam system to boost their league table performance, investigators have found.

Teachers have altered exam answers, inflated GCSE marks and even told pupils to copy coursework from textbooks.

Whistleblowers told Channel 4’s Dispatches programme that the practice is well known but few teachers will speak out as they fear for their careers.

One headmaster who was caught altering Sats papers said he was later told by another head: ‘The only thing you did wrong was you got caught.’

In 2013, 37 state primary schools had Sats results annulled for maladministration and there were 511 reports of alleged cheating.

Education author Warwick Mansell told the programme: ‘I think it is a bigger problem than many people are aware of.’

In one case, King’s Farm school in Gravesend, Kent, allowed a child to rewrite answers after an exam finished.

Evidence also suggested that the youngest children at King’s Farm were marked down in order to show better academic progress later on.

Kent County Council confirmed it had found evidence of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ and a new leadership team was in place.

And Portslade Aldridge Community Academy in Brighton signed pupils off the school roll so it could boost its headline exam results. The school admitted it had ‘wrongly’ moved 12 pupils to guest status before GCSE exams.

In one secondary school rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, teachers told pupils to copy coursework from a textbook. Another teacher revealed she was encouraged to give pupils grades they did not deserve.

A Department for Education spokesman said: ‘ We trust the professionalism of teachers to administer the Key Stage 2 tests according to the published guidance, and it is essential that the integrity and security of these tests is maintained.’

Dispatches will be shown on Channel 4 at 8pm tonight.