A theft from a vehicle delivering GCSE papers caused an exam board to scrap four papers at the last minute and replace them with new questions cobbled together from past papers which some students had already seen, Tes can reveal.

Two Edexcel papers for GCSE Russian and two for GCSE Arabic were replaced with composite versions featuring questions from previous years which pupils recognised when they opened the papers.

Pupils said they were “fuming” at the “very unfair” situation.

The problems were compounded because a number of candidates still ended up sitting an original paper which was “potentially compromised” by the theft.

Tes has been handed an email sent by Lucian Lanteri, head of English assessment and modern foreign languages at Pearson - the company which runs Edexcel - to schools on 25 June 2018.

The email explains why Edexcel had to replace its unit 3 and 4 GCSE papers in Russian and Arabic, which candidates had sat earlier in June.    

“While the original papers were being delivered to centres, we were alerted to a theft from a delivery vehicle containing the above exam question papers,” Mr Lanteri writes.

Pupils ‘fuming’ over replacement GCSE paper

“Although it appears the papers were not deliberately targeted, we nevertheless made the difficult decision to replace the papers to avoid the possibility of the content being made available to candidates before the exam.”

In making this decision, he said Edexcel “considered very carefully the disruption this would cause within centres, but felt the high risk of a security breach outweighed the potential disruption”.

However, the email states that because these papers were in their “final sitting”, “we did not have another paper in production to replace the potentially compromised papers”.

New papers could not be created “from scratch” because of the “12-month lead time for the creation of fully checked and error-free examinations papers”.

Instead, Edexcel “created composite papers composed of questions from a number of different previous papers”. These were then mailed out, while the board tried to reach schools by telephone and email to tell them to use the replacement papers.

However, the email reveals that some candidates still sat the potentially compromised paper.

“Unfortunately, in a very small number of cases, we have been made aware of candidates sitting the original rather than the replacement paper,” it states.

The email finishes by saying that a process was put in place to mark the original papers, and that Edexcel would review “the relative difficulty of the papers during the awarding process to ensure candidates are treated in the same way, regardless of the paper they sat”.

The revelation raises questions about whether candidates had a level playing field for the two GCSEs. As well as pupils sitting two different versions - including a version that could have been compromised - some pupils had already seen the questions on the composite paper.  

Many schools use past papers to help pupils prepare for their revision. One Russian teacher, who asked not to be identified, told Tes that two of his students said they recognised questions on one of the papers.

The teacher said that colleagues at other schools reported the same experience, and had complained to Edexcel about the board’s handling of the incident.

Shortly after sitting the papers, pupils took to The Student Room website to vent their frustration.

On 14 June, one commenter posted: “In the reading paper, FIVE questions were questions that have appeared in other papers, word for word. I don’t know how many other people (if any) have realised this, but I’m actually FUMING at Edexcel. This is so clearly a disadvantage for students who happened to not do those past papers.”

Another posted: “I also realised this, but as I had done the past papers, it was OK for me, but very unfair yes.”

A Pearson spokesman said: “We take any breach of security extremely seriously.

This theft was beyond our control and there is no evidence the papers were deliberately targeted, but we took swift precautionary action to replace the affected papers and prevent any disruption to exams.

“Following a thorough investigation after the exams were sat, we have concluded that none of the original papers were breached.”

He added: “We are confident the replacement papers provided a fair and accurate assessment opportunity for all candidates.”

Today’s news follows the leak of an Edexcel A-level maths paper this summer, which resulted in five students being disqualified.  A police investigation is still ongoing.

And Tes revealed yesterday that Edexcel set pupils an impossible question in GCSE business.