Obscenities up, cheating down, says exam watchdog

THE NUMBER of schoolchildren writing obscenities on examination answer sheets has more than doubled in a year, according to figures released by the exams watchdog, Ofqual. Cheating is broadly down, but the peculiar offence of X-rated scribbling has more than doubled.  
 
“Instead of answering questions, candidates have been caught writing obscenities - including racist remarks, comments about the examiners and lewd drawings - on their answer sheets”, The Daily Telegraph reports. The number of these instances has risen to 422 from 193 in 2010.
 
But the total number of malpractice penalties has fallen by 11 per cent to 3,678, with significant reductions in copying, disruptive behaviour, and bringing unauthorised material into the examination room. The proportion of scripts to receive penalties fell to 0.02 per cent.
 
There was a significant increase in the number of pupils receiving ‘special consideration’, which can earn them five per cent more marks in compensation for difficult circumstances, such as the death of a family member.
 
These cases rose by 12.5 per cent, which Ofqual’s chief executive Glenys Stacey attributed partly to printing errors on exam papers in June.
 
But James Davies, a teacher in an inner-London school, told The Week.co.uk that ‘special consideration’ can be abused: “The system is essentially fair, but it is too easily manipulated.”
 
Davies was not surprised about the obscenity figures, claiming that “pupils swear freely” in class, which he believes is partly a result of the rise of social networking. The decline in cheating, he felt, shows that “exams are as important as ever”. ·