A lecturer who worked at the now defunct International Academy of New Zealand has told Newshub he was paid to falsify hundreds of student assessments in an attempt to deceive NZQA.
The tutor is ashamed about what he did, but has decided to speak out because he says the international education market is being abused as a means to make money and process visas.
The tutor, who we'll call Christopher, says the instruction to alter hundreds of business assessments came from one of the school's directors, Exzur Peralta (Mr Ex).
"What Mr Ex told us is just to 'repair' - add something to make it better.
"What I did do was not to change totally the assessments but to add content on the answers of students," Christopher says.
The additions were carried out secretly on a computer over several weekends.
One of Christopher's payslips showing the hours he was paid for "checking and organising" (Newshub.)
Payments for assessment checking and organising were made over a two month period. Christopher was paid $25 an hour.
"I felt embarrassed and not good because my dignity as a tutor is taken away from this," he says.
The whistleblower has worked at six different international schools in Auckland and says it was always the same. The schools are all about making dollars and processing visas.
"I know as a tutor that the students are just coming for visa purposes. Not really for quality education,"
He says tutors are frequently pressured to pass students, as these official documents from IANZ suggest.
One student's answer to a question about business investment is gibberish.
The answer reads: "The company used to produce cost method to improve the products and the company can get a profit of more than costs".
To which, the examiner remarks "Correct, keep it up".
Christopher recently failed three pupils at another school but was then criticised with the school's owner asked for an explanation.
"Why you fail the student? What happens to our business if you keep on failing? Why not call the students and do the resubmission so that they will pass?" Christopher was asked.
He describes plagiarism as "rampant", saying it happens at more schools than just IANZ.
"They just check it from the internet and then after checking from the internet they just copy and paste."
Newshub wanted to ask IANZ director Exzur Peralta about the allegations made by our whistleblower.
But his lawyer told Newshub: "Mr Peralta has no further comment to make to the media ... period"
Newshub.
