HONG KONG Hong Kong students will be kept in isolation after sitting British public exams next month to prevent them leaking questions to friends in Britain, a report said.

Some 3,000 students will be placed under supervision after sitting their exams to prevent them calling or E-mailing friends in Britain sitting the same papers later in the day, AFP quoted the *****South China Morning Post**** as saying.

The students will be isolated for up to four-and-a-half hours after each exam, the report said.

British Examination Board Edexcel imposed the requirement on international schools in the territory using the GCSE and A-level examination system as a precautionary measure to counter rumors that questions were leaked last year.

"Edexcel has been required to take this action following allegations of cheating," the board's spokesman Stevie Pattison-Dick said.

However, David West, education officer for the English Schools Foundation, which runs 18 schools in the territory, denied allegations that Hong Kong students had helped their British counterparts 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 told the post.

GCSE and A-level exams are defining moments in the school lives of students in Britain, with university places often dependent on the results.

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