'Students should face pre-exam security tests to stamp out fraud'

A Government-backed report is recommending tougher measures such as fingerprint or retina scanning to prevent students drafting in friends to take exams in their place.

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Exam boards are forced to disqualify candidates every year for passing off others as themselves in GCSE and A-level exams.

The report, commissioned by Government exams watchdogs, also called for widespread trials of 007-style detectors to trap pupils using mobile phones to cheat in exam halls.

The devices, more often used by private detectives and surveillance firms, pick up the waves emitted by mobile handsets when a student tries to use them.

The measures should be considered to stamp out the "significant and growing" problem of cheating in exams and coursework, according to the report produced by academics at Nottingham Trent University.

The digital revolution and advent of mobile phones and MP3 players has extended opportunities for cheating from "the knowing few" to the "majority", author Professor Jean Underwood concluded.

Youngsters are able to send text messages or use the WAP facility on their phones during exams themselves to retrieve helpful information. Some are texting friends the answers even if they are sitting in the same exam room.

Professor Underwood said schools could buy mobile signal detection devices for just £100.

She called on the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, which requested the report amid evidence of a growing cheating epidemic, to test the effectiveness of the gadgetry in clamping down on exam fraud.

There are fears youngsters could evade the devices by using phones as "electronic crib sheets" and bringing up stored text messages rather than triggering the detectors by making active connections.

The exams watchdog should also investigate whether schools could legally cover the walls of exam rooms with mobile phone shields or "blocking paint" or use signal "jammers" to thwart cheating pupils.

But the report's backing for biometric identification is among its most controversial recommendations.

It suggests exam boards require "some form of status identity" for all examinations, adding that the "use of biometrics to prevent impersonation might be of particular value for test centres where students are unknown to the invigilating staff".

However teachers won new contracts in September last year stating they should not "routinely" invigilate public exams.

It means schools will find it harder to stop pupils using impersonators since they will be forced to rely on teaching assistants or bring in teams of seasonal invigilators drawn from the ranks of supply teachers.

Companies already offering the biometric technology for guaranteeing the identity of test candidates suggest using two or three screening techniques out of a list of fingerprint scanning, retina scanning, voice scanning, passcode prompts, photographs using webcams and ID cards.

Other recommended measures to stamp out cheating include using different versions of tests to prevent pupils copying over their shoulder and insisting students stick to seating plans.

"Students seated next to strangers are less likely to cheat" the report said.

According to the report, levels of cheating in Britain are likely to be comparable to the U.S. where studies have shown 74 per cent of school pupils admit to "serious test cheating".

Boys are more likely than girls to cheat, or at least admit to it. Teachers who are uncaring or indifferent to their students' success are thought to foster a culture of cheating.

QCA's own figures show how soaring numbers of students are using mobiles to cheat in exams.

Phones were linked to 1,100 malpractice cases last year - around a quarter of total.

Exam boards deal with a small number of cases every year of students substituting others to sit exams for them.