Measures announced by Ofqual to clamp down on cheating by teacher-examiners will “undermine the professional integrity of teachers”, a union has warned.

The NEU teaching union called the measures - which include allowing exam boards to scrutinise lesson plans - “disproportionate and potentially damaging”. 

Last summer the assessment system was plunged into controversy after teacher-examiners at two elite private schools were accused of leaking questions to their students ahead of their tests.

Eton College’s deputy headmaster left the school following an investigation by Cambridge International Examinations, amid claims that he leaked questions from a Pre-U economics exam which he had helped to set. A teacher at Winchester College was also suspended in relation to similar claims.

Following the incidents, Ofqual reviewed the practice of teachers contributing to exam papers while teaching the same qualification, and set out its proposals for clamping down on cheating in March.

Quality of teaching materials ‘at risk’

Today Ofqual confirmed that it would be taking forward its proposals by requiring awarding bodies to compile conflicts-of-interest registers, and by creating new statutory guidance setting out safeguards which exam boards might want to put in place.

However, the NEU has criticised some of these safeguards, such as the monitoring of lesson plans to see if teacher-examiners had narrowed their teaching. 

Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the union, said: “Measures suggested by Ofqual undermine the professional integrity of teachers and put at risk the quality of the materials developed.

“While some of the measures suggested are useful to help protect the confidentiality of assessment materials, the fact that Ofqual has suggested that the lesson plans of teachers involved in their development could be scrutinised, or that such teachers may be denied the professional development opportunity of developing materials for specifications they teach, is disproportionate and potentially damaging.”

She added: “The NEU fully supports the protection of the confidentiality of assessment materials and would point to the millions of successfully and securely awarded qualifications over the decades, using the invaluable input of teachers, amongst others, to demonstrate how this can be done.”