Traditional 'fail' best way to deal with hi-tech cheats

CHEATING at exams has come a long way since the days when it was the height of daring to scribble some quotation or algebraic formula on an arm and hope that the dominie overseeing your ordeal would not notice.

Figures released yesterday by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) showed that the number of pupils caught using mobile phones to cheat in exams more than doubled last year as they sought more modern ways to ensure they make the grade.

It is true that the figures did show that what might be called more traditional ways of cheating, such as looking at your neighbours' paper in the exam hall or smuggling in notes, still happen but the modern world has brought a modern challenge to invigilators.

What to do? Some schools south of the Border have even resorted to using tracking technology to trace any mobile phone signal emanating from within an exam hall. We hope that it will not have to come to this in Scotland.

However, with the rise of the internet and the ever more sophisticated mobile technology available to pupils, it is only sensible that the SQA should keep up with the times by cracking down severely on those who seek to use modern technology to cheat.

It should be made clear to every student sitting an exam that if they are caught cheating, using a mobile phone or any other method, they will simply be deemed to have failed. That should be deterrent enough.