The mother of a high-flying student has been arrested alongside a teacher after the pair broke into a school in South Korea to steal an exam paper.

Police are investigating after the theft at a girl’s school in Andong, a city about 167 miles south of the capital Seoul, in the middle of the night last month.

While the teacher had left the school last year, she knew the security code and her biometric data was still stored in the system, allowing her to scan her fingerprint and enter the premises, it is alleged.

The duo then proceeded to the third-floor faculty office where the exam papers are stored, but were stopped when the school’s security alarm sounded.

They managed to flee, but were arrested the following day.

“A 31-year-old teacher and the 48-year-old mother have confessed to the crime,” a detective at the Andong Police Station confirmed.

A facilities manager at the school was also arrested for allegedly allowing the mother and teacher to break in and then later manipulating the security footage.

Investigators suspect the mother had been paying the teacher two million won (£1,075) per exam period, for more than two years, totalling about 20 million won (£10,750).

The school claimed that the teacher had accessed the premises seven times since she resigned last year, each time during exam season.

‘Straight out of a drama’

“It’s shocking to think something like this, which feels straight out of a drama, happened in our community,” the mother of another middle-school student at the school told the local media outlet Korea JoongAng Daily.

“There are rumours that the mother did this to get her daughter into medical school,” she added.

The teacher and mother first met in 2020 when the former taught the woman’s eldest daughter. She then also taught the younger daughter at the centre of this scandal in 2023. 

The teacher is also accused of privately tutoring the younger daughter, which is illegal under Korean law.

The student, who was reportedly top in her class, has been expelled following the arrests and has had all her previous test scores invalidated.

South Korea is known for placing crippling pressure on students to excel academically and goes to great lengths to maximise this success.