Eton deputy head leaves after ‘leak of exam details to students’
‘A breach of security’
A DEPUTY headmaster at Eton has left the college amid allegations that he leaked ‘confidential information’ to pupils before an economics exam.
Mo Tanweer has been accused of circulating an email that ‘breached exam security’, in effect invalidating part of a paper sat by pupils.
It means the marks they were awarded for one section of the exam have been rescinded and will not count towards their final grade. It was not clear last night whether the information leaked was the exam questions or other sensitive details.
According to a letter to pupils at the £37,000-a-year college in Windsor, the breach related to a Cambridge Pre-U exam in economics, an alternative to A-levels popular in private schools.
The discovery came after an investigation by Cambridge International Examinations, which administers the exams.
In a statement, the college told The Guardian: ‘Eton College can confirm that following an investigation by the Cambridge International Examinations board into maladministration, the board concluded that there had been a breach of exam security by one of Eton’s teachers in relation to one of the PreU economics papers.
‘ Eton took this matter extremely throughout.fully seriouslywith CIE’s The and investigation co-operatedteacher concerned has left the school.
‘Whilst pupils had done nothing wrong, they were inadvertent recipients of confidential information and so the board awarded them assessed marks for that paper according to its established method. Eton College deeply regrets that this incident occurred.’
Mr Tanweer, Eton’s deputy headmaster of academics and a former investment banker who joined the school in 2015, was a ‘ principal examiner’ for the qualification in question. It
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Simon Henderson, Eton’s headmaster, told pupils in the letter: ‘I am very sorry to be writing with this extremely unwelcome news. This decision has had to be taken by the examination board because of the actions of a member of Eton’s staff.
‘This is a matter that, as headmaster, I have taken very seriously and Mr Tanweer has now left Eton’s employment.’
He added: ‘There is no suggestion that any boy at Eton has done anything wrong, nor is any member of staff at Eton other than Mr Tanweer implicated.
‘However, CIE has decided that they cannot accept the marks of any candidate at Eton for this paper because to do so would threaten the integrity of the exam and certification.’
CIE, a branch of Cambridge University that includes the OCR exam board, said: ‘Following an investigation into maladministration, students at one school have been given an assessed mark for one paper. This decision was made to ensure fairness to all students taking Pre-U economics in the June 2017 exam series. We sympathise with the students who have been affected through no fault of their own.’
Eton and Mr Tanweer did not answer calls to comment last night.