As the exam season approaches students are being warned against using mobile phones to cheat during tests. Official figures revealed today by the Welsh Exam Board indicate that the number of people caught cheating has doubled in the last 12 months.

Although students are warned that cheaters will face harsh penalties the message does not seem to be getting through. The number of mobile phones ringing during exams has also increased by a third during the last year.

One head teacher from a Cardiff school said “Mobile phones are a nuisance right through education and I suspect it may be worse considering we are now in a position we can’t ask teachers to invigilate exams. Just who is going to walk in to supervise a hall full of youngsters who they don’t know, and more importantly who don’t know them?”

This problem is not limited to Welsh schools, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority in England reported over 1,000 pupils had been found in an exam hall with a mobile phone during 2005.

With the huge rise in the number of school children who carry mobile phones this does not appear to be a problem that will be easily solved. Harsh penalties are a partial solution but the real solution lies in educating the students and making them realise that they need to leave their phones at home during exams.