Latest news with #academiccheating
Arab News
16-07-2025
- Arab News
South Korean teacher, mother arrested for stealing exam
SEOUL: A teacher and a parent of a high school student in South Korea have been arrested for breaking into a school to steal exam papers, police told AFP on Wednesday. The country is known for placing extreme emphasis on academic achievement — with its annual college entrance exam forcing airplanes to be grounded during English listening tests. The pair are accused of breaking into a high school in Andong, about 270 kilometers south of the capital Seoul, at around 1:00 a.m. on July 4 to steal exam papers, triggering an alarm and leading to their arrest. 'A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime,' said a detective at the Andong Police Station, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The teacher was a private tutor for the student while working at the school, where she was employed until February last year, authorities said. Police suspect the pair may have committed similar thefts in the past, helping the student ace academically, and that money was exchanged between the teacher and the mother. 'They tried to steal exam papers across many subjects, not confined to Korean, which the suspect was teaching,' the detective told AFP. A school maintenance worker was also arrested for aiding the late-night breach, investigators said. The student, who had maintained top grades since enrolling in 2023, has been expelled and her grades nullified, according to the Yonhap news agency.
Telegraph
16-07-2025
- Telegraph
Mother arrested for ‘breaking into school and stealing exam papers'
The mother of a high-flying student has been arrested alongside a teacher after the pair broke into a school in South Korea to steal an exam paper. Police are investigating after the theft at a girl's school in Andong, a city about 167 miles south of the capital Seoul, in the middle of the night last month. While the teacher had left the school last year, she still knew the security code and her biometric data was still stored in the system, allowing her to scan her fingerprint and enter the premises, it is alleged. The duo then proceeded to the third-floor faculty office where the exam papers are stored, but were stopped when the school's security alarm sounded. They managed to flee, but were arrested the following day. 'A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime,' a detective at the Andong Police Station confirmed. A facilities manager at the school was also arrested for allegedly allowing the mother and teacher to break in and then later manipulating the security footage. Investigators suspect the mother had been paying the teacher two million won (£1,075) per exam period, for more than two years, totalling about 20 million won (£10,750). The school claimed that the teacher had accessed the premises seven times since she resigned last year, each time during exam season. 'Straight out of a drama' 'It's shocking to think something like this, which feels straight out of a drama, happened in our community,' the mother of another middle-school student at the school told the local media outlet Korea JoongAng Daily. 'There are rumours that the mother did this to get her daughter into medical school,' she added. The teacher and mother first met in 2020 when the teacher taught the mother's eldest daughter. She then also taught the younger daughter at the centre of this scandal in 2023, whom she was also privately tutoring, which is prohibited by Korean law. The student, who was reportedly top in her class, has been expelled following the arrests and has had all her previous test scores invalidated. South Korea is known for placing crippling pressure on students to excel academically and goes to great lengths to maximise this success.
CNA
16-07-2025
- CNA
South Korean teacher and mother arrested for stealing exams
SEOUL: A teacher and a parent of a high school student in South Korea have been arrested for breaking into a school to steal exam papers, police told AFP on Wednesday (Jul 16). The country is known for placing extreme emphasis on academic achievement, with its annual college entrance exam forcing planes to be grounded during English listening tests. The pair are accused of breaking into a high school in Andong, about 270km south of the capital Seoul, at around 1am on Jul 4 to steal exam papers, triggering an alarm and leading to their arrest. "A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime," said a detective at the Andong Police Station, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The teacher was a private tutor for the student while working at the school, where she was employed until February last year, authorities said. Police suspect the pair may have committed similar thefts in the past, helping the student ace academically, and that money was exchanged between the teacher and the mother. "They tried to steal exam papers across many subjects, not confined to Korean, which the suspect was teaching," the detective told AFP. A school maintenance worker was also arrested for aiding the late-night breach, investigators said. The student, who had maintained top grades since enrolling in 2023, has been expelled and her grades nullified, according to the Yonhap news agency. It is the latest in a series of exam-related scandals in Asia's fourth-largest economy. Nearly 250 public and private school teachers were caught selling mock exam questions to private institutions over six years, earning an average of US$61,000 per person, according to the state audit body in February.
