Schools which use jammers to stop pupils using their mobile phones during exams to cheat face a fine of at least €1,800 and could end up in court, the government’s telecoms agency said on Tuesday.

This year the agency is going to carry out checks to make sure jammers are not being used during the main exam period, which starts on May 11.

By disrupting phone traffic, the schools are also disturbing emergency calls and interfering with some medical equipment which continually transmit to hospitals, spokeswoman Mariël van Dam told broadcaster Nos.

Instead schools can confiscate pupils’ phones and use a gsm detector to make sure they are not taken into the exam room and so can’t be used to cheat. They can also turn off in-school wifi systems, Van Dam said.

It is unclear from the Nos article how many schools use gsm jammers to disrupt phone signals. ‘Information we’ve received about schools planning to do so have prompted us to take action,’ Van Dam told the broadcaster.