Tech Shout!

England’s exam supervisory body has noted a phenomenal rise in the number of cases where students have been caught and thereafter punished for cheating in school exams and assignments. There has been an increase by over a quarter last summer.

According to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), students caught with mobile phones in exam halls accounted for around 25 percent of the offences

QCA Chief Executive Ken Boston said, “Over recent years we have seen a noticeable rise in the number of mobile-phone related incidents in examination halls across the country.”

If a student is caught with a mobile phone, he can not only be marked down but can probably be even failed for possessing the device, irrespective of whether he’s using it to cheat or not.

Boston said he would be writing to all schools about the significance of students leaving their phones outside exam halls.

More than over 4,500 students were punished during last summer’s round of A-level and GCSE exams, a rise of 27 percent over the previous year.

However, the overall number of candidates penalised remains low, with less than one incident for every 1,500 exams taken.

Around one-third of the offences involved students caught for plagiarism, conspiring or copying another candidate’s work, usually in assignments done before a final exam.

Others were punished for cheating or unruly behaviour during exams, writing obscenities on their exam papers or disrespecting and failing to follow instructions from supervisors.