Caught cheating? In my days, that's an automatic fail.
But not anymore, at least not in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada! Teachers there are forbidden to fail a student caught cheating:
The school board had defended the policy change, on grounds that cheating students could still be disciplined — including a suspension from school — and that a failing grade did not resolve whether the student had actually learned an assignment.
But critics said the policy helped coddle students, and gave a signal that cheating does not have serious consequences.
As such, I get students in the 6th grade who can't (or won't) write down the alphabet from a to z.
Some of my students also don't seem to realise that they live in a country with middle school entrance exams. Oh well, I tried to warn them.
When I was at college a male student was accused of cheating because much of an assignment was identical to that of a female student. He received a failing grade even though the only "evidence" the college had was that his essay was handed in later than hers. He continued to deny having cheated and threatened the college with legal action. Finally the female student admitted responsibility, although she claimed that she had paid the male student's flatmate to write her assignment and that he must have copied the essay. The flatmate was not a student of the same college and so could not be punished by the college.
If you read the source material (here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/pdf/nl-evaluation-regulations-20111005.pdf), it seems that the point is to emphasize the evolution of the students as a whole, in a context, not solely based on exam results.
The rule on cheating states that if a student is caught attempting to cheat, he will not be graded on that assessment.
Then it goes on to say that "Cheating is a serious offense and should be addressed through the normal disciplinary procedures of the school", and that "cheating on public examinations shall be dealt with according to Department of Education Policy" (i.e. disqualification from all examinations).
Now that might still be open to debate, but at least it's good to get the facts before reaching conclusions. (And it's increasingly apparent that we can't rely on journalists to provide them)