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Aspiring teachers have been caught smuggling calculators, mobile phones and impersonating their peers in a bid to cheat on major literacy and numeracy exams they must pass to graduate from university.
A dossier of incident reports from the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students reveals students surreptitiously searched the internet for answers on a bathroom break, peered at others’ answers and asked test supervisors how many millimetres were in a centimetre.
Test authorities have received fewer complaints since rules about resitting the exam were relaxed.Credit: iStock
The high-stakes national tests were introduced in 2016 as a prerequisite for teaching degree graduates following public concern about the quality of teachers entering classrooms.
Candidates who failed the exams three times were previously issued a two-year ban from taking the test but the rules were relaxed this year and students now have unlimited attempts.
The dossier was released by the Department of Education under freedom of information legislation.
About one in 10 students fails the literacy and numeracy components on their first attempt, test data shows. Last year, there were 61,094 bookings for both the literacy and numeracy tests.
The incident logs show hundreds of students (about 3 per cent) who sit the test on their computer remotely face issues every year, including problems attributed to unauthorised programs, disconnection, test timing, and unauthorised breaks.
One of the earliest cases of suspected cheating occurred in 2016 when a student used software allowing someone else to remotely access the test content while another student attempted to converse with a voice-activated personal assistant.
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER), which administers the test, said in 2022 it had red-flagged students whose results dramatically improved between their first failed attempt and subsequent sittings.
“ACER discovered a case of impersonation due to such checks, and investigations showed that another person sat the test on behalf of the candidate,” it said.
In 2023, another candidate who recruited someone else to impersonate them for the test was banned from sitting the test for two years.
When it came to in-person exams, held in capital cities and regional centres several times a year, there were numerous examples of students attempting to use a calculator.
“[One] candidate found with a scientific calculator on their desk. Candidate became belligerent when supervisor advised that a report would be submitted,” a May 2023 incident log cited. Only one section of the numeracy test allows students to use an on-screen calculator.
In a bizarre incident in Brisbane in 2017, one aspiring teacher stole another person’s food. When confronted about the theft, she absconded from the test centre.
“When asked to give it back she said ‘Well are you going to give it to them after I’ve touched it?’ After being told no she said, ‘Well then’ and walked to the lifts. I asked for her name and she scoffed and said ‘No.’” the incident report said.
Another episode of food theft in 2018 saw a candidate in Adelaide help himself to a lunch buffet from another event at the test venue. This time, the test supervisor was able to retrieve the food, the incident report said.
In the decade since the test, known as LANTITE, was mandated, it has spawned a cottage industry of tutoring services and social media groups including “LANTITE will not take away my dreams” and “Place to vent about LANTITE” – which is “a safe place where you won’t be judged on your successes or failures”.
Deakin University academic integrity expert Phillip Dawson said about one in 10 university students cheat and were more likely to do so in high-stake tests.
“Any time something is a gateway for something that people really want, it can increase the likelihood of someone doing the wrong thing,” he said.
Following an amnesty trial in 2024, which gave students banned from sitting the test for two years a chance to resit, complaints from students declined, including those made to the Australian Human Rights Commission.
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“In fact, recent complaints and enquiries received were mainly from candidates who did not have to go through assessments in the form of tests and examinations in their university courses and were therefore nervous to sit the LANTITE and sought to seek an exemption from the test,” the dossier said.
A Commonwealth Department of Education spokesperson said universities played a key role in identifying test misconduct because candidate results are transmitted directly to the respective institutions.
“This ensures that only verified results are used, reinforcing the credibility and fairness of the testing system,” the spokesperson said.
“ACER have reported that only a very small number of investigations have found evidence of wrongdoing, and ACER is confident that a vast majority of candidates are engaging in the test process in good faith.
“Where test misconduct is found, ACER applies relevant sanctions on a case-by-case basis.”
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