An undercover investigation by The Daily Telegraph newspaper found evidence of teachers paying £200-a-day to attend seminars with chief examiners. There, the paper alleges, they were advised on future GCSE and A-level exam questions and the exact wording that pupils should use to obtain higher marks, and the advice being given out appeared to go far beyond the standard "guidance".
The revelations will prompt claims exam boards are undermining the purpose of exam syllabuses by encouraging "teaching to the test". The paper said it recorded one chief examiner telling teachers which questions their pupils could expect in the next round of exams.
In footage provided by The Daily Telegraph, a man says: "We're cheating. We're telling you the cycle (of the compulsory question). Probably the regulator will tell us off." He then advised teachers that he was telling them how to "hammer exam technique" rather than the approach of "proper educationalists" to "teach the lot".
(I'm sure the students won't mind. That way they can learn the dates of the first and second world war, but never mind why the whole bloody mess started.)