26th January 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
It was interesting to see the recent furore about teachers “cheating” after receiving unfair advice from examining boards about how to help their students. Most past students will have a story from school about how they were given help that wasn’t technically allowed. The idea that it’s a new phenomenon is probably something that the government and Ofqual would like to believe to maintain the illusion that our exams are better than any other country.
To name only a few incidents of ‘extra help’ given by teachers: a history teacher, famed for irony, pointed out that in no way were his students to write down the timed assessed essay questions which they would have to complete in the following lesson. A science teacher would read her student’s papers during an exam and make it known when the student should ‘reconsider’ an answer. The language teacher who made her students memorise answers to questions which were to be recorded as part of a oral exam, and then sent to the examination authority.
As a tuition agency we have to be careful to avoid any accusations of cheating because it’s a very common criticism from those outside of our industry. Coursework is an area which leaves a lot of opportunities for outside influence, and many people who don’t use tutors see those who do as having a very unfair advantage when it comes to non-examination assessed work. Of course, we receive lots of unethical requests from students who want us to do their coursework, and our tutors often email us asking how to respond to such requests.
The irony is that, although tuition is perceived as the industry perverting coursework marks for its students, it’s probably teachers who offer far more inappropriate help to their students. There is something more distasteful about a tutor being paid to complete someone’s coursework, than a teacher who wants to improve his/her student’s grades. Teachers are seen as doing the best for the student, and tutors are seen as trying to earn a fast buck for themselves.
We find that, on the whole, tutors are under far less pressure to interfere with coursework because the only consequence for them in saying “no” is that the student might seek help elsewhere. Whereas teachers are in a position where their head teacher is demanding improved results, and there is the feeling that if one doesn’t do a student’s coursework then the teacher in the neighbouring school will.