Teacher jailed for stealing exam papers

A teacher who admitted stealing exam papers to help her private pupils was jailed for three months yesterday. Farzana Akbar, 46, admitted taking five GCSE maths papers from her school and using them to coach pupils at her husband's private tutorial college before their exams.

Akbar, of Motspur Park, Surrey, stole the papers from Archbishop Lanfranc School in Croydon, south London, where she had taught for 13 years. David Clark, the school's headteacher, said the theft had been a "huge breach of trust" by someone who had been respected by colleagues, pupils and parents.

Earlier, at Kingston Crown Court, Akbar had pleaded guilty to theft of five papers, claiming she had experienced a "moment of madness" triggered by the start of the menopause. She also said she had acted out of a "misguided sense of loyalty" to her students, whom she wanted to do well.

The cheating was discovered after a pupil at the tutorial college, Headstart Education in Motspur Park, told another teacher of similarities between this summer's "real" GCSE questions and problems she had tackled during revision sessions at the college. The teacher told the exam board, Edexcel, which contacted the police. When officers raided the tutorial college in June, they found teenagers studying the questions for an exam they were due to sit 24 hours later. There was no evidence Akbar's husband knew of the theft.

Judge Binning told Akbar, who sobbed throughout the hearing, that he had no choice but to give her a custodial sentence because she had undermined the integrity of the exam system. Three months was the minimum term he felt able to impose.

He said her actions had given "deliberate benefit to pupils" at the private tutorial college and a "disadvantage to pupils everywhere else, including the school where you were a trusted teacher". He added: "You undermined that integrity deliberately and dishonestly and you put those pupils in an embarrassing situation because they would have realised as they sat the examination that they had an advantage."

Akbar had been able to steal the papers because she was responsible for organising exams for pupils at Archbishop Lanfranc School. Her job involved placing orders for exam papers and keeping them secure in a locked filing cabinet. She told police she took the papers knowing it was dishonest. Akbar, a teacher for 20 years, resigned after the thefts were discovered.

John Kerr, Edexcel's chief executive, said: "The examination system runs on an element of trust. We welcome the news that the courts have taken this matter seriously because it is important that the system is seen to be firmly supported by all parties to maintain the integrity of examinations."