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Security tags to keep track of exam cheats
Last updated at 18:37pm on 11.05.07
Computer programmes are being deployed to counter cheats
Exam papers are being 'tagged' to combat cheating in GCSEs and A-levels this summer.
Packages of papers will be tracked using devices similar to those attached to clothes and CDs to ensure none are stolen by unscrupulous pupils or teachers.
As the summer exam season gets underway on Monday, the Edexcel exam board will include the tags with a "significant" number of packages it dispatches to schools and colleges.
Further "micro-texting" technology will allow the board to identify photocopied exam papers. Genuine papers will be given tiny marks only visible under a magnifying glass.
The board revealed it investigated 70 breaches of exam security last year. Some involved teachers who inadvertently opened the exam packages prior to the designated exam date.
Notorious cases of cheating include the theft of maths GCSE papers by teacher Farzana Akbar. She took the papers from Archbishop Lanfranc School in Croydon to help pupils she was tutoring privately but was caught and jailed for three months in 2002.
In 2004, questions from maths and chemistry A-level exams were posted on a website prior to the exam and papers were sold for up to £1,000.
Jerry Jarvis, Edexcel's managing director, said: "Incidents involving stolen papers are extremely rare, but the potential impact is massive.
"The logistics of re-issuing an alternative paper to schools and colleges around the country and re-training markers on the new paper are complicated, costly and could ultimately be detrimental to candidates.
"We're doing a major trial of new techniques and technologies with the aim of deterring potential thefts, enabling us to better identify the source of a lost or stolen paper, and reducing the threat of fake papers being sold to candidates."
Under the system, bags of papers will be fitted with Radio Frequency Identification tags. These will be scanned as the bags are despatched and again after delivery to schools to check whether papers are missing.
These checks will be carried out by compliance officers who are sent out to schools and colleges by the Joint Council for Qualifications, the umbrella body for exam boards. Edexcel says the tags will help the officers identify any bags which have been tampered with.
The board added its online marking system made it easier to spot students who are cheating in exams themselves.
It said nine out of 10 Edexcel papers are scanned, digitised and marked online by examiners, allowing staff to spot candidates who have performed significantly out of line with expectations.
Their paper can then be checked manually for evidence of malpractice.
The online system also makes it easier to spot if a group of students all have the same answers and cheating is suspected.
The board is also developing special security boxes to hold papers until a specified time before each exam. Staff could only unlock them with a secure password.
Reader views (4)
I believe the message is don't cheat and you may be accused of studying hard. The only accusations would be if the test book came back without original markings. It also sounds as if it is to prevent the administrators and teachers from cheating as much as to prevent the students. It will affect 0% of the non-cheating students so why not?
- Jim, Key West, Florida, USA
I taught math at a small college and wrote a computer program that would individualize each printed test by selecting randomly from a range of problems and then using different numbers or factors for each problem. Every test paper had a unique identifier, and an answer sheet was also printed for each test keyed to that identifier. No 2 students ever got the same test. Having also programmed RFID (I'm a computer programmer) I can say that it was a far cheaper means of insuring there was no cheating. There is no reason this same technique could not be used for all tests.
- Thomas Mobley, South Carolina, USA
A much more secure system would be to give every school a fast laser printer and (if necessary) a computer and network link. Send out the exam papers as encrypted computer files. Send out the decryption key for an exam only once the students are seated in their examination hall. Decrypt the file, print and distribute exam papers, start the exam. A decryption key could also be delivered by telephone, if the network link broke down.
- Nigel, London
Unexpected good results? What message is this sending, study hard and you will accused of cheating?
- Brandon Thomas, London
