Busted: Hundreds of students caught cheating

As high school students prepare to sit NCEA exams this week, figures reveal hundreds were caught cheating in last year’s exams, and that number is rising.

Figures from the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) show 290 students across New Zealand were caught breaching exam rules in 2015.

Ninety-five exam-sitters were caught with mobile phones, with seven caught actually using their phones during exams.

Having notes or unauthorised material was another popular way to cheat, accounting for 80 of the breaches, while 34 students communicated with other candidates during exams.

In 2014, 280 students broke the rules during their exams, as did 273 in 2013.

However, it was important to note there were more than one million entries into NCEA and New Zealand Scholarship every year, and the majority of students followed the rules, NZQA deputy chief executive Kristine Kilkelly said.

Across Wellington schools, 27 students cheated in 2015, the figures showed.

The New Zealand Secondary Principals’ Council Wellington representative, Naenae College principal John Russell, said he hadn’t dealt with a cheating student for about 10 years.

‘‘There’s not a lot of incentives to cheat these days when they’ve got so much internal assessment.’’

Most students got over the line through their internal grades, and Russell suggested cheating might happen at the top end of the system if pupils were under pressure to get a scholarship or excellence grades.

‘‘I would think the issue would be more these days around plagiarising, or submitting work that other people have helped you with ... instead of cheating in an exam. It’s pretty rare,’’ he said.

Secondary Principals’ Association of New Zealand president Sandy Pasley said exam supervisors were astute, and anyone attempting to cheat was ‘‘pretty foolish’’.

‘‘The quality of exam supervisors makes a huge difference; they’re really on it, they’re continually walking around watching.’’

The number of students caught cheating was tiny compared with the number sitting exams, she said.

Kilkelly said any potential breaches were reported to NZQA by exam centre managers or schools and investigated.

Depending on how seriously they had broken the rules, students could get a warning or receive a not-achieved on their exam.