What’s the main idea of this passage A．Practical ways to help students with their tests. B．Schools’ management failure and exam cheating. C．Electronic devices’ functions in stopping cheating. D．The necessity of lowering the difficulty of exams.
A further 60 individual teachers also faced penalties for "malpractice", the regulator said, although this was down on a year earlier. The disclosure comes amid an ongoing investigation into cheating in GCSEs by one of the Government’s flagship academies. Kingsdale Foundation School in south London was alleged to have changed pupils’ work after tests and fabricated coursework in an attempt to drive up grades.According to reports, one former pupil even claimed that teachers entered the exam hall during a test, telling students to change their answers. Ofqual insisted that the sharp rise in school reprimands was down to a clampdown on malpractice by one exam board—Edexcel.A spokeswoman for Pearson, which runs the board, said: "In 2012 we introduced a more rigorous warning process so that we can gain far more accurate data across centres on all incidents, both minor and major." According to figures, 130 penalties were imposed on schools and colleges in England, Wales and Northern Ireland this summer, compared with just 56 a year earlier and 106 in 2010. It was the highest total since records were first collated in 2009.
School-wide penalties can be imposed for a serious management failure across an entire institution or department, rather than the isolated actions of one teacher. Three schools were found to be giving assistance to pupils in the exam hall and examiners reported security breaches on 21 occasions, it emerged. Remaining penalties were imposed for a variety of reasons, including opening papers early, sitting an exam at the wrong time and failing to invigilate candidates properly. Most cases resulted in a written warning, although five had their power to run exams withdrawn. This penalty had previously only been used five times over the last three years.
Some 60 teachers or lecturers were subjected to individual penalties, with two-thirds of cases related to "inappropriate assistance to candidates". Other staff were reprimanded for coaching or prompting students and giving candidates more time beyond the official finishing point. Overall, 23 teachers were suspended from involvement in exams.
The use of mobile phones and other electronic devices in the exam hall was the most common reason—covering almost half of cases—followed by plagiarism, failing to acknowledge sources and copying from other students.