Teenager arrested after exam papers go missing

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy has been arrested on suspicion of theft after As-level and GCSE papers went missing.

Hundreds of schools and colleges were forced to get replacement exam papers after a courier was supposed to deliver a batch from the examination board, the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA), to a school in Milton Keynes, but they never arrived.

Thames Valley Police confirmed that a 16-year-old has been arrested on suspicion of theft and released under investigation. The force said it was investigating theft from a vehicle that occurred in the town on Apr 26.

Claire Thomson, AQA’S director of operations, told the Times Education Supplement: “We’ve known about this issue for over a week, so the process of sending new papers to schools to make sure no one has an unfair advantage is well under way. Our message to students is that there’s nothing for them to worry about – they can carry on with their revision as if nothing’s happened and we’ll take care of it.”

The Milton Keynes school alerted AQA when it did not receive a package of exam papers. The board contacted the courier company and the police.

Thousands of students begin their GCSE, AS- and A-level exams from next week. Exam boards have ramped up security around question papers recently. Last month, Pearson, which owns Edexcel, announced plans to insert microchips into packs of A-level and GCSE exam questions this summer in an attempt to combat online leaks.

Edexcel’s A-level papers were leaked two years in a row. Police launched an investigation last summer after questions appeared for sale online the night before the exam.