HSC for sale :( (1 Viewer)

[Not-That-Bright]

HSC for sale in tutor scam

EXCLUSIVE by RICKY SUTTON

June 20, 2005

HUNDREDS of children have been able to buy their way into university in a cash-for-coursework scam being run by a Sydney teacher.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal a teacher from a state-run high school has been earning up to $5000 a subject to do school work for pupils.

The teacher's company is accused of faking work to help more than 250 pupils win university places.

In one case, the agency took two pages of rough notes written by a Year 12 pupil and converted them into a 32-page novelette, which got 48 marks out of 50.

In another, the agency wrote four poems from scratch and gave them to a pupil to enable her to get the UAI grades she needed to get into university.

The teacher or her agency is not registered with any tutoring organisation so is not subject to any controls or checking.

The HSC examination is split into two elements: coursework and assessments that make up 50 per cent, and an exam which constitutes the remainder.

The BMW-driving teacher is paid up to $5000-a-subject to cheat on the coursework requirements.

She is currently on unpaid sick leave from the Sydney high school where she is employed as an English teacher.

A former worker, who blew the whistle on the scandal, told The Daily Telegraph: "You can literally buy your child into university. It is completely unethical.

"The parents all knew. None of them was angry when [the agency] offered to do the work.

"Some of the children we saw didn't have a hope. One was signed with [them] for help in five subjects and was really struggling.

"After [they] did her work for her, she ended up with an above average 83 UAI and is now at the University of Technology, Sydney."

The former tutor said he had done the coursework of more than 250 Year 12 pupils before quitting.

"About 40 per cent of them [100 students] would not have got the UAI needed to get into university without my help," he said.

"The rest were from selective schools and were often very intelligent. For them it was a matter of pride to get better marks and their families were willing to buy them the marks that would give them the edge."

The way it would usually work was that a pupil came to the agency with a parent and a first draft of their coursework.

Ethical tutoring agencies, many of which are registered with the Australian Tutoring Authority, would offer additional teaching to help them improve their work.

This particular agency, however, took the draft and reworked it themselves, cheating the system.

Australian Tutoring Authority spokesman Mohan Dhall said good tutors did not cheat on behalf of their clients.

"ATA members are bound by a code of conduct which ensures that the students have their skill levels boosted so that they can become independent learners," Mr Dhall said.

"Unfortunately, the Board of Studies, which registers schools, has no capacity to regulate the conduct of private tutoring organisations which engage in the practices that [this agency] is alleged to have engaged in.

"Thus, tutors and tutoring organisations are strongly encouraged to join the ATA in order to state to the public they will never engage in dubious business practices."

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1258&storyid=3312018

 

[transcendent]

OMG I wish I had her number!

 

[iamsickofyear12]

A lot more people do it than just this 1 teacher.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

I think this should be a case for people who claim that private schools give richer people a competitive advantage to realise that if you've got more money than someone you'll had a 'competitive advantage' always.

 

[loquasagacious]

The power of money.

On principle I hate those who are undeserving who get in like this.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

There must be some legal means to fry her arse. There must be!

 

[withoutaface]

There must be some legal means to fry her arse. There must be!

I remember for a few assignments we had to sign forms indicating that it was our own work etc, so if you can't get the people purveying these services you can at least bust the students for plaigarism.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

The students are victims here!
When students are forced to pay $5000 to get their work plagarised (without government subsidy!) to fight the mamoth workload that is the HSC, we have to wonder where our underfunded education system is going!

 

[MoonlightSonata]

I remember for a few assignments we had to sign forms indicating that it was our own work etc, so if you can't get the people purveying these services you can at least bust the students for plaigarism.

Very true

I want to decapitate the source though, since I assume a lot of the 'users' don't get caught

 

[AsyLum]

There must be some legal means to fry her arse. There must be!

Crime of not telling me: Punishable by whipping, and firing squad

 

[LadyBec]

I wish I had enough money to buy my way into uni. well a better one anyways

 

[tomorrows_angel]

if students buy their way through the hsc into uni, then how are they going to cope at uni? how much would you pay for someone to do your PhD dissertation?

it's just so unfair that people with money can get away with ANYTHING in society... i mean seriously, if they've got that much money, why wouldn't they just pay full fee at usyd or unsw? this is so frustrating... reminds me of the loser trying in the bos buy/sell forums to buy a religion assignment cos they had lots of other assignments on and weren't sure if they'd finish it.

society sux!

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Full fee only gets u in with a uai 5 points lower... it's not really value for ur money...

 

[tomorrows_angel]

yeah i know but that 5 points could mean the difference between you getting in and not getting in..
i guess that it wouldn't help in a lot of cases... but if you're getting a lot more than an extra 5 uai points, then seriously how well are you going to do in a course where the competition and the other students are obviously of a much higher standard than you are.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

You can pay your way through uni too, getting people to do ur assignments =/
Then u get some crappy management job that is really easy and just do that for the rest of ur life...

Most of these people are probably only going to uni so they can "run the family business" tho.

 

[spin spin sugar]

jesus christ... i didnt realise this kind of stuff actually happened

 

[tomorrows_angel]

yeah i guess... it's just so annoying!!! but then again, it said that a lot of the clients were from selective schools, who wanted to do better than the rest of the students, so a fair few of them are not going to go on and run family businesses.

 

[loquasagacious]

Plagiarism is an academic crime that educational institutions take very seriously, if there was hard evidence and names named rather than hersay then maybe something would be done...

 

[transcendent]

Yes yes it was very naughty of her. Now I wonder what qualifications I require to be employed by her. I admire her work.

 

[withoutaface]

I hope they find these little shits and they get booted out of uni.