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British primary school test paper leaked amid test protest

Xinhua, May 10, 2016 Adjust font size:

A test paper and its answers were leaked online Monday night ahead of a test on Tuesday that thousands of Year 6 pupils in England were to sit.

The spelling, punctuation, and grammar test for about 600,000 English schoolchildren aged 10 and 11 was posted to a website on Monday by test supplier Pearson, a contractor of the Department for Education, local media reported on Tuesday.

The leakage meant lists of words students could be asked to spell on the test could be easily downloaded, copied and distributed a day before the exam, local media said.

The Department for Education confirmed the test paper and its answers were uploaded to a website by Pearson and appeared online for four hours on Monday evening before being taken off the site. The education department said they were investigating the incident.

"The site can only be accessed by Pearson's approved markers, all of whom are under secure contract. Any distribution of materials constitutes a clear breach of that contract," a department spokesman said.

A source from the education department said the act was an "active campaign by those people opposed to our reforms to undermine these tests," adding a "rogue marker" had attempted to leak the test contents.

Considering the test wasn't leaked to the public, the education department said the test had not been compromised and the results would still stand.

It was the second time a test paper had been leaked in the past few months. A test of spelling, punctuation and grammar for half a million pupils aged between six and seven had to be scrapped after a testing agency mistakenly included the actual test paper within a bundle of practice material published three months earlier.

The new tests, recently introduced to the primary school national curriculum, have been described as "rigorous" and have sparked controversy. Many parents and teachers have complained the tests are too difficult for the children.

On May 3, a number of parents in England kept their children home from school to protest the tests. Nearly 50,000 parents signed an online petition calling for a boycott of primary school tests. Endit