A deputy headmaster at Eton has left the college amid allegations he circulated questions from an upcoming economics exam to other teachers ahead of an A-Level equivalent test for sixth-formers.



Staff and pupils at Eton have been told that Mo Tanweer, Eton’s deputy headmaster of academics and a former investment banker, is no longer employed there and that the exam marks of pupils at the famous public school have been rescinded.

The discovery came after an investigation into leaked questions in the exam by Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), which administers the Cambridge Pre-U exams, an alternative to A-levels popular among British independent schools.

In a statement, the college said: “Eton College can confirm that following an investigation by the Cambridge International Examinations board into maladministration, the board concluded that there had been a breach of exam security by one of Eton’s teachers in relation to one of the Pre-U economics papers.



“Eton took this matter extremely seriously and co-operated fully with CIE’s investigation throughout. The teacher concerned has left the school.

“Whilst pupils had done nothing wrong, they were inadvertent recipients of confidential information and so the board awarded them assessed marks for that paper according to its established method. Eton College deeply regrets that this incident occurred.”

Simon Henderson, Eton’s headmaster, told parents and pupils in a letter: “I am very sorry to be writing with this extremely unwelcome news. Regrettably this decision has had to be taken by the examination board because of the actions of a member of Eton’s staff.

“This is a matter that, as headmaster, I have taken very seriously and Mr Tanweer has now left Eton’s employment.”

Letter from Eton regarding a teacher’s breach of exam security. Photograph: Eton College, Windsor

Tanweer – who previously taught at Oundle and Merchant Taylors public schools – was a principal examiner for the Pre-U economics exam, and so involved in preparing the exam before it was sat by pupils earlier this year.

The CIE investigation concluded that Tanweer shared emails with other teachers, constituting a breach of exam security. It related to questions in a section of the two-hour exam in which pupils were asked to write three essays from a choice of six questions.

As a result, the exam board has said it will disregard the marks of the Eton pupils in that section, and instead award a mark based on an average of the pupils’ results from the other two sections of the exam.

“There is no suggestion that any boy at Eton has done anything wrong, nor is any member of staff at Eton other than Mr Tanweer implicated,” Henderson told parents. “However, CIE has decided that they cannot accept the marks of any candidate at Eton for this paper because to do so would threaten the integrity of the exam and certification.”

Former pupils at Eton include David Cameron and Boris Johnson. Photograph: Frantzesco Kangaris/The Guardian

Henderson said Eton would be writing to all UK universities that its candidates had applied to, “to make very clear that the candidates are not to blame in any way”.



CIE – a branch of Cambridge University that includes the OCR exam board – said in a statement: “Following an investigation into maladministration, students at one school have been given an assessed mark for one paper, which is based on the marks they each achieved in the other papers.

“This decision was made to ensure fairness to all students taking Pre-U economics in the June 2017 exam series. We sympathise with the students who have been affected through no fault of their own. All Pre-U economics entries from other schools were marked as normal. No other action was taken against this or any other school.”

Tanweer did not respond to repeated attempts by the Guardian to contact him.

According to an online profile, Tanweer graduated in economics from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, in 2004 before working as an investment banker.

By 2006, Tanweer had started teaching economics at Merchant Taylors’ school in Northwood, Hertfordshire, and between 2010 and 2015 he was head of economics at Oundle school in Northamptonshire, another boarding school. Tanweer joined Eton in 2015 as an economics teacher and was swiftly promoted to a senior post as a deputy head last year.

The affair is a rare scandal for Eton, which under Henderson’s leadership has kept a low profile despite its former pupils including David Cameron and Boris Johnson. The boarding school was originally founded in 1440 by Henry VI as a school for poor boys, and charges £37,000 a year in fees.

The Cambridge Pre-U exam was designed as a two-year course for sixth-formers intending to study at university, and boasting “rigorous curriculum, quality and consistency of marking”. It uses nine grades, with the top grade harder to achieve than an A* in A-level. CIE says about 170 schools in the UK offer Pre-U exams.

The Pre-U economics exam asks entrants to write essays discussing topics such as “to what extent should governments prioritise the control of inflation over the goal of low unemployment?”

“Protecting the integrity of our exams is our priority and we take very seriously our duties to ensure that all of our examinations are fair, and that all students receive an appropriate and valid grade,” CIE’s spokesperson said.



Last month, the police made two arrests after copies of a maths A-level paper from the Edexcel exam board were discovered for sale online. Edexcel also conducted an investigation after portions of an A-level economics paper were posted on social media for a few minutes before the exam was taken.