Pearson, the largest exam board in England, has been fined £250,000 following a series of rule breaches that compromised the confidentiality of its exam papers.
The breach occurred when it was revealed that teachers involved in the development of Pearson’s assessments knew which papers their students would be taking.
The exam board reported to Ofqual, the qualifications regulator, that it had failed to adhere to its own policies designed to ensure the confidentiality of its exam papers.
Additionally, Pearson failed to identify conflicts of interest among 195 examiners, who were also employed as tutors at schools where students were sitting GCSE, A-level, and BTEC exams under the National Tutoring Programme.
Amanda Swann, Ofqual’s executive director for general qualifications, said, ” Our rules protect students taking regulated qualifications including GCSE, A Level and BTECs.
“We will take action when our rules are breached, and the interests of students are put at risk.”
Swann added there was “no evidence of any direct impact on students”. But Pearson “failed to guard against conflicts of interest and breaches of confidentiality and we intend to fine them accordingly”.
The breaches occurred in 2023 and included six incidents where Pearson did not follow its own policies to protect the confidentiality of live assessment materials.
These lapses raised concerns about the integrity of the exams. In one case, a teacher at a Pearson centre was also a senior associate involved in producing the final assessment for an A-level paper.
Pearson’s policy in such instances is to produce multiple versions of a question paper to prevent any examiner from knowing which paper would be used. However, this process was not followed in this case.
Similar failures were identified with another qualification where multiple versions of the exam paper were not produced for summer 2023, even though the policy was meant to be in place.
For four other qualifications, multiple versions of exam papers were produced, but internal errors meant the senior team could have identified which version would be used.
Further complicating matters, Pearson’s examiners for summer 2023 also served as tutors in schools, under contract to Pearson, as part of the National Tutoring Programme.
These 195 examiners marked 7,244 exam responses from students at schools where they had a potential conflict of interest.
The tutors had not declared their tutoring activity in connection with their examiner role, and Pearson failed to cross-reference or verify this information.
Despite the breaches, Ofqual stated that Pearson “co-operated fully” with its enforcement process.
Pearson admitted to breaching its conditions of recognition, which are legally required for awarding organisations of regulated qualifications. As a result, Pearson agreed to pay a fine of £250,000 and cover the regulator’s reasonable legal costs.
A Pearson spokesperson commented that once the potential conflicts of interest were identified, the company promptly notified Ofqual, took corrective action, and resolved the issue. A detailed review, carried out in conjunction with the regulator, found no evidence of any negative impact on students or schools.
The spokesperson also acknowledged that these breaches occurred in the wake of unprecedented disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and said the company had since updated its systems and processes to reduce risk and improve controls.
