'Zero tolerance' for exam cheats

EDUCATION minister Luc Chatel has promised tougher measures to deal with baccalauréat exam cheats and people who leak test papers.

Better security at printworks and depots and more consistent sanctions for those caught cheating are among the measures announced in a newspaper interview.

Mr Chatel told the Journal du Dimanche: "Exam fraud is a scourge and I want a zero tolerance approach to cheats.

"We are not reactive or dissuasive enough. The current rules are too vague and they need to be updated."

The sanctions for cheats and those who leak papers include a three-year prison sentence and a five-year ban on sitting the bac, but Mr Chatel admitted in the interview that "they are rarely applied - if at all".

Questions were raised about the security of the examination system in June, after an anonymous web user leaked one of the questions for the Bac S (science path) maths exam online.

The blurry photo was taken on a mobile phone by a print worker. Separately, some of the English and physics exam questions were also leaked by text message.

Mr Chatel said not all schools were applying the same security criteria when they received the printed papers.

He added that education authorities would be better trained to detect online leaks early.