In total, 26 secondary school pupils have taken advantage of an amnesty for cheaters and admitted they saw exam papers stolen from a school in Rotterdam, junior education minister Sander Dekker told parliament on Monday night.

Twenty pupils from the Ibn Ghaldoun school in Rotterdam have confessed to seeing the papers, six at another school in Rotterdam and one from a school in Utrecht.

Dekker told MPs there is evidence the papers were spread much wider than this, both within the Ibn Ghaldoun school and in other cities and said he regretted the fact more pupils had not come forward.

Pupils found to have cheated later risk losing their school leaving certificates, Dekker said.

Retakes

Six pupils at the school have been arrested in connection with the theft of the papers. Pupils at the Ibn Ghaldoun are being forced to retake all the stolen exams.

Three pre-college pupils who went to court arguing they had not seen the stolen papers, and were being discriminated against by having to retake the papers, lost their case on Monday.

Only pupils at other schools where the stolen papers were circulated who confessed to cheating were forced to retake the exams.