The number of penalties issued to students making mobile phone and “communication device” offences in GCSE, AS and A level exams shot up by a third this year compared with the last time exams were sat, in 2019.
According to figures released by Ofqual today, 4,335 penalties were issued to students for malpractice in 2022, up from 3,040 in 2019.
And rule breaking involving mobile phones and other communication device offences accounted for 43 per cent of all these penalties.
There were 1,845 penalties for this type of offence in 2022, compared with 1,385 in 2019 - marking an increase of 33 per cent.
Although the number of penalties for incidents involving mobile phones increased, it made up a slightly smaller proportion of the overall incidents when compared with 2019, when 46 per cent of penalty incidents involved mobile phones.
Penalties for student malpractice vary depending on the type of offence, but can include partial or full loss of marks. The types of offence students get penalties for can also include disruptive behaviour or plagiarism. The number of penalties overall is still very low, representing 0.03 per cent of entries.
Staff malpractice in exams went down in 2022 from an already very low level. The Ofqual report reveals that 340 penalties were issued to staff, down from 450 in 2019.
The number of penalties issued to schools or colleges also decreased since the last time exams took place. The data shows that 60 penalties were issued to schools and colleges in 2022, down from 135 in 2019, and involving 0.9 per cent of exam centres.
Ofqual has also produced a new report today reviewing the summer series of GCSE, AS and A level exams.
It has said that it has written to exam boards to highlight the need to improve the recruitment and retention of examiners ahead of the exams in 2023.
