Detection wands could stop mobile phone use in exam halls

More schools may start using “detection wands” to prevent mobile phones being taken into exam halls and used during toilet breaks.

The National Association of Examination Officers (NAEO), working with membership body The Exams Office, will provide a free hand-held scanner for school staff who attend its training events.

Invigilators and staff could then use the scanners, which act like a metal detector, to search pupils for any hidden phones or technology before they enter an exam hall.

Jugjit Chima, NAEO’s chief executive, said the tool would serve as a deterrent, especially for pupils who smuggled in phones to use during a requested toilet visit.

“That’s a blind spot,” he said. “There are increasing numbers of schools that are using these. They’re another tool in the range of measures discouraging pupils from bringing phones into the exam room.”

The body considered the move after a letter from chief regulator Ian Bauckham last month telling exam boards to “strengthen” their arrangements to reduce mobile phone malpractice.

Phones in malpractice cases

Nearly half of the 5,000 malpractice cases reported to Ofqual in the past three years have involved pupils taking phones or other communication devices into exams.

Guidance by the Joint Council for Qualifications does not rule out bathroom breaks, but states invigilators must be “vigilant and remain aware of incidents or emerging situations, looking out for malpractice or candidates who, for example, may be feeling unwell or require a toilet break”.

Chima said the detection tool should be used with current school practices and would not replace the invigilator’s responsibility to remain alert to malpractice.

Pupils found to have prohibited items would not face action. Sanctions only began once the invigilator’s announcement on rules had been made, Chima said. Schools can buy additional wands from NAEO for £30.

In the past three years staff at Carshalton Boys Sports College in south London found approximately 20 phones when they used the scanners before mock and official exams.

They first asked pupils to hand any electronics over to be stored safely, and then two staff members scanned bags and students before they entered the hall.

Sue Meloy, exams officer, said it prevented pupils using devices during exams but also helped stop disruption from phones ringing in bags.

“They are used to it now, we have a good rapport with our pupils and are up front with them,” Meloy said. “It’s about protecting them and their future, and everyone else’s in the room.”

However, more time before exams and more staff members were needed.

‘Decisions for schools’

Bauckham told Schools Week the move was “an interesting proposal”, adding: “I do hear various proposals about mobile phone detection.

“Those are fundamentally decisions for schools to take. What will be appropriate for one school might not feel right in another. My view would simply be that the examination must be delivered under secure conditions, and students should not have devices.”

However, Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said schools should ask parents for help to ensure phones were kept at home on exam days.

“Any measures a school chooses to use to ensure pupils don’t bring phones in should be practical and proportionate.” He said schools should not be “required” to use mobile phone wands.

Exams officers are also becoming more aware of the risk of smart glasses, which can feature built-in AI assistants, cameras and audio.

Chima said they were “quite easy to detect at the moment, but the technology is moving quickly”.

Bauckham said Ofqual was not aware of any pupil wearing them.

“If by smart glasses we mean some sort of wizardry whereby text scrolls across the inside of your lens and only you can see and nobody else can see, we’d have to say no to that.

“At the end of the day a qualification needs to demonstrate what a pupil knows, understands and can do.”