Last year Edexcel delivered 620,000 bags of papers to schools

Edexcel is considering tagging parcels of exam papers with radio transmitters linked to its headquarters and delivering them in time-locked boxes.

The board will also use a printing process that hinders photocopying.

Edexcel has had a number of problems with papers being stolen ahead of exams - one saw a teacher being jailed for distributing papers to pupils.

Farzana Akbar was given a three month sentence and was banned from teaching for three months by the General Teaching Council after admitting taking five GCSE maths papers from the Archbishop Lanfranc School in south London in 2003.

And in 2004, police were called in to investigate the theft of maths and chemistry A-level papers, after questions were posted on a website ahead of the exam.

'Dire consequences'

Last year Edexcel delivered 620,000 bags of papers to 450,000 schools and colleges.

It investigated 70 suspected security breaches, the majority of which involved packages that had been inadvertently opened at the wrong time.

Penalties for pupils who are found to have stolen papers or cheated range from warnings, to being banned from taking exams for up to four years.

Edexcel's managing director Jerry Jarvis said: "We would like to think any student or teacher who thinks they would cheat are going to get caught.

"The consequences can be quite dire."