The UK education system is marred by numerous cases of cheating and breaching the rules, as disclosed by an investigation conducted by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian. The journalists reported that exam boards “coached” teachers on how to improve their students’ GCSE and A-level results. Our observer Sergei Sayenko has more details.
Undercover Daily Telegraph reporters attended 13 conferences organized by exam boards for teachers whose students were supposed to take different exams. The journalists found that chief examiners routinely informed teachers about future questions, areas of the syllabus that would be assessed and specific words or facts students must use to answer in questions to obtain higher marks.
As it happens, exam panels are competing with one another for attracting a greater number of schools. The exam boards that offer help in obtaining higher grades profit the most, since their exams become the most popular. A total of five such panels are working in Britain.
According to the journalistic inquiry, teachers are paying up to 230 pounds a day to attend seminars where they receive advice that goes far beyond the standard “guidance” and opens exam boards to accusations that they are undermining the purpose of exam syllabuses by encouraging “teaching to the test”.
Given the revelations, Education Secretary Michael Gove has called for a fundamental reform of the exam system and urged an official inquiry into the questionable practice.
The undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian has produced tangible results. The Welsh Joint Education Committee – WJEC – has confirmed that chief examiners Paul Evans and Paul Barnes have been suspended over the findings. The advice which they gave during the so-called “consultations” was secretly videotaped by The Daily Telegraph reporters.
Both examiners were fired, apparently, in order to teach their colleagues a good lesson. Similar cases of exam cheating have been reported in the UK before, the most recent one involving the University of Wales, the second-largest institute of higher education in the UK founded 120 years ago. The university was abolished in October this year following a series of visa scandals.
This unprecedented measure was meant to draw the line under accusations of visa fraud and lack of control over foreign colleges accredited by the university to confer its degrees. A BBC inquiry revealed that foreign students paid money to obtain the answers to graduation exam questions. That enabled them to seek MBAs and apply for work visas. The effectively functioning scheme also spared the students the need to do a substantial part of academic work.
Judging by the recent scandals, the British education system, which used to be one of the world’s best just recently, is plagued by corruption. Some experts put the blame for it on the British authorities. The government of David Cameron has been taking measures to contain an influx of foreign students, on the one hand, and has been raising tuition fees at UK universities, on the other. As a result, many gifted citizens of the UK are shut out of higher education institutions and the British universities are open only for the wealthy.
Source:
english.ruvr.ru
Undercover Daily Telegraph reporters attended 13 conferences organized by exam boards for teachers whose students were supposed to take different exams. The journalists found that chief examiners routinely informed teachers about future questions, areas of the syllabus that would be assessed and specific words or facts students must use to answer in questions to obtain higher marks.
As it happens, exam panels are competing with one another for attracting a greater number of schools. The exam boards that offer help in obtaining higher grades profit the most, since their exams become the most popular. A total of five such panels are working in Britain.
According to the journalistic inquiry, teachers are paying up to 230 pounds a day to attend seminars where they receive advice that goes far beyond the standard “guidance” and opens exam boards to accusations that they are undermining the purpose of exam syllabuses by encouraging “teaching to the test”.
Given the revelations, Education Secretary Michael Gove has called for a fundamental reform of the exam system and urged an official inquiry into the questionable practice.
The undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian has produced tangible results. The Welsh Joint Education Committee – WJEC – has confirmed that chief examiners Paul Evans and Paul Barnes have been suspended over the findings. The advice which they gave during the so-called “consultations” was secretly videotaped by The Daily Telegraph reporters.
Both examiners were fired, apparently, in order to teach their colleagues a good lesson. Similar cases of exam cheating have been reported in the UK before, the most recent one involving the University of Wales, the second-largest institute of higher education in the UK founded 120 years ago. The university was abolished in October this year following a series of visa scandals.
This unprecedented measure was meant to draw the line under accusations of visa fraud and lack of control over foreign colleges accredited by the university to confer its degrees. A BBC inquiry revealed that foreign students paid money to obtain the answers to graduation exam questions. That enabled them to seek MBAs and apply for work visas. The effectively functioning scheme also spared the students the need to do a substantial part of academic work.
Judging by the recent scandals, the British education system, which used to be one of the world’s best just recently, is plagued by corruption. Some experts put the blame for it on the British authorities. The government of David Cameron has been taking measures to contain an influx of foreign students, on the one hand, and has been raising tuition fees at UK universities, on the other. As a result, many gifted citizens of the UK are shut out of higher education institutions and the British universities are open only for the wealthy.
Source:
english.ruvr.ru
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