Record number of teachers caught in exam cheat probe

Typical cases involve whole groups of pupils being provided with model answers, teachers giving too much feedback on work to be assessed or submitting false marks.

Where teachers are found to have breached the rules the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) can lower candidate marks or even prevent a school or department from running future courses.

Read more: Teachers face 'wilfully insensitive' crackdown on cheating

However, in most cases subject specialists from the SQA will work with schools to ensure they understand what is expected of them in assessments.

Dr Janet Brown, chief executive of the SQA, said: “We have a duty in the interests of fairness and equity for all candidates, and to maintain the integrity and standards of our qualifications, to investigate where concerns of malpractice are raised.

“Any kind of malpractice is totally unacceptable. We will continue to work with our centres, the teaching profession, and our markers and invigilators, to ensure that our approaches to malpractice are applied.”

The number of pupils caught cheating has also increased this year although numbers are very low.

There were 204 cases where pupils were penalised compared to 183 the previous year with the majority involving either mobile phones or written notes being used in exams. There were also more than 70 cases of plagiarism.

Read more: Teacher struck off for helping pupils cheat

Teacher malpractice has worsened following the introduction of Curriculum for Excellence, which places less of an emphasis on the final exam in qualifications such as National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher. National 4 is entirely assessed on coursework.

An over-reliance on final exams is seen as counterproductive because it encourages rote-learning and may not reflect how well a pupil performs throughout the school year. However, it means coursework supervised by teachers now counts towards more of the final mark.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the Educational Institute of Scotland teaching union, said deliberate malpractice was unacceptable, but blamed the SQA for poor communications on what was acceptable.

He said: "There have been numerous changes to assessment requirements over the past few years and teachers have complained consistently about confused and sometimes contradictory guidance from the SQA, poor levels of support generally, an absence of exemplification and weak communications."

A number of teachers have been struck off in recent years for malpractice including a history teacher from West Lothian who allowed pupils to work from completed essays in exams.

Read more: Schools facing spot checks to catch teachers cheating

A secondary teacher from Dumfries was reprimanded after creating fake National 5 English results for almost half her pupils at a time when she was failed to cope with increasing paperwork.

And a maths teacher from Kirkcaldy High School was criticised by teaching watchdogs for failing to mark National 5 test papers before registering them all as passes.

Updated guidance for schools and colleges on assessment conditions includes practical examples on what does and does not constitute "reasonable assistance".

Schools must not provide model answers or give pupils a specific framework to follow in essays such as outlines, paragraph headings or section headings.