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A Nottingham teacher has collected 3,800 reports on corruption in the international school system that deal with nepotism, fraud, and cheating. In England, they highlight structural "reform", with its waste of money on free schools that never open, the horrific ongoing costs of successive Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs), and the way schools are pitched against each other to survive. Examples include an academy boss telling teachers to cheat on exams and the widespread relocation of students to improve school performance.

The assessment watchdog Ofqual figures for the 2017-2018 academic year show 1,539 penalties for malpractice in vocational qualifications, of which 55 per cent were for students, 39 per cent for staff, and 6 per cent for schools and colleges. There were 606 penalties issued to staff, with the most common offense being “improper assistance to candidates”, which accounted for 75 per cent of all penalties. Only 7 per cent of penalties for staff came in the form of suspensions or bans. In 45 per cent of cases, staff received a written warning, while 41 per cent of the penalties involved further training. The most common type of cheating reported was plagiarism, which accounted for 46 per cent of all student penalties, followed by in the use of mobile phones or other communication devices in exams, accounted for 19 per cent.

The Ministry of Education has made a complaint against three to four institutions in Ile-de-France regarding questions leaked. Candidates for the 2019 baccalaureate are said to have received beforehand the subjects for mathematics and physics tests through private networks. A site specialized in tips for using the calculator had also reported that math and physics subjects had leaked through its site, where candidates had converted them to be included in their calculators. An investigation for "examination fraud, breach of trust and concealment" has been launched.

The Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ), which represents the seven largest qualification providers in the UK, commissioned an independent report into exam malpractice. Police are investigating an exam leak after a number of students had advance sight of part of a General Certificate of Secondary Education religious studies paper. Another A-level maths paper was offered for sale via social media. Two questions from the paper first appeared on Twitter, offering students the whole paper for £70.

The 7,500 academies in England educate nearly 4 million pupils. Thousands of pupils are being failed by a system that fails to give academy trusts proper oversight. The public accounts committee reported that governance of academy trusts must be strengthened and that the Department for Education’s oversight must be more rigorous. MPs have called for new sanctions to deter and punish malpractice after hearing that the former head of Durand Academy in south London was paid an £850,000 severance package.

YouTube stars are being paid to sell academic cheating, a BBC investigation has found. More than 250 channels are promoting EduBirdie, based in Ukraine, which allows students to buy essays, rather than doing the work themselves. YouTube said it would help creators understand they cannot promote dishonest behaviour. The BBC Trending investigation uncovered more than 1,400 videos with a total of more than 700 million views containing EduBirdie adverts selling cheating to students and school pupils.

Cheating on a very large scale has just been unveiled in England. Reprehensible acts by both students and teachers have been uncovered during the OCR (for Oxford, Cambridge and RSA examinations), run by one of the most renowned exam boards in the country. In order to pass the UK’s most prestigious competitive examinations, 2300 teachers between 2012 and 2016 helped their pupils obtain better marks. In the same period, 3 602 pupils are accused of cheating. More than half of these teachers were accused of "inappropriate assistance" during written tests, to help their students achieve better results.

The 2011 S Bac math exercise that had leaked on the Internet was not stolen, but there was indeed fraud said the Paris Court of Appeal, which sentenced four young people to three and four month suspended prison terms. This affair had revived the controversy over the profound examination reform. Wanting to make an example of this episode, the Minister of Education had filed a complaint and launched a "zero tolerance" plan against fraud during the baccalaureate. In first instance, the criminal court had acquitted or reduced the sentences of all the defendants prosecuted for concealment, fraud or theft.

Some students pass their exams by sheer luck, others may do so thanks to their connected watch. This concentration of technology is the 2017 version of notes hidden up a sleeve, and is the object of choice for those wishing to solve equations while appearing to count the minutes. Watches, calculators, smartphones ... all are now on the radar of exam organizers and supervisors. 911 suspected instances of cheating were identified during the 2016 exam period, with more than half followed by sanctions.