23 Jul 2009

More boys than girls cheated in NCEA exams

8:31 pm on 23 July 2009

Boys appear to be twice as likely as girls to cheat in exams, according to figures on breaches of the rules in last year's NCEA exams.

In 2008, 43 boys had their results withheld compared with 19 girls, continuing the pattern from the previous year when 75 boys broke the rules, compared with 41 girls.

The Qualifications Authority says the overall number of serious breaches of exam rules dropped by almost half in the 2008 senior school examinations.

By far the greatest transgression for both girls and boys involved taking crib notes into their exam.

Students also got into trouble for offensive language and behaviour, impersonation, creating disturbances and unauthorised use of a calculator or dictionary.

Principals Association president, Peter Gall, the principal of co-ed Papatoetoe High School, says he hasn't noticed any difference between girls and boys when it come to cheating.

Mr Gall says he would need to see statistics over a longer time, such as a ten-year period, before accepting that boys cheat more than girls.

Principals Council chairman Graeme McCann says if cheating is a form of risk-taking, it's a pretty stupid risk to take.