Hong Kong students sitting British public examinations must be supervised and isolated for up to four-and-a-half hours after each exam under new rules to prevent them leaking questions to candidates in the UK who sit the papers later in the day.
Stevie Pattison-Dick, media affairs manager of British examination board Edexcel, said: 'Edexcel has been required to take this action following allegations of cheating earlier this year.' These were rumours circulating in the UK, she said, which had not been proven.
Edexcel, the board used by the English Schools Foundation (ESF) and some other international schools offering British GCSE and A-level exams in Hong Kong, imposed the supervision requirement ahead of the examination season next month.
David West, the ESF's education officer, is not pleased with the decision. 'We are very concerned about these new requirements and, particularly, the late notification to centres,' he said. 'The ESF will monitor very closely their effects and we will make strong representations to Edexcel if they prove detrimental to students.'
The ESF has decided to start exams later in the day in order to minimise the supervision periods. But some principals fear this will affect students who might not be at their peak at the later hours.
Mr West refuted rumours that Hong Kong students had helped UK students to cheat. 'Whilst we understand that there was a potential for cheating, the arrangements have been in place for many years without, as far as we know, incidents of this nature,' he said. 'If anything, the new arrangements have raised the whole profile of cheating when most would not even have thought about it.'
The board has informed schools that candidates must be supervised until 3pm after morning exams and until 7.30pm for afternoon papers. Within these periods, they are not allowed access to telephone, fax or e-mail facilities. Contact with other people who could relay exam details must also be controlled. The ESF this week decided to shift the start time for morning exams to 12 noon and afternoon exams to 4.15pm to reduce the supervision periods. Its schools can vary those timings within half an hour. But this still means that students must be supervised for two hours, if they sit one-hour papers.