STUDENTS affected by the foot and mouth crisis are set to receive special dispensation from examination boards.

Lancashire County Council has now urged schools to make sure exam boards are aware of pupils whose lives have been affected by foot and mouth so they are not put at a disadvantage during their GCSEs or A-levels.

Only a handful of pupils' preparation for crunch exams are believed to have been affected by the virus, with some teenagers being confined to farms after livestock was either confirmed as having the disease or declared by vets to be at high risk.

Students who have completed 35 per cent of coursework ahead of exams are eligible for the dispensation grades, with consideration also made for emotional stress which may have been caused as a result of the disease ahead of actual exams.

They will be given a predicted grade as their final grade.

Exams boards already make allowances for pupils who have been in hospital or off sick for long periods and pupils whose education has suffered as a result of foot and mouth are also set to benefit. However, it is down to individual schools to contact the exam boards about pupils who have struggled.

An examining boards statement said: "Schools need to contact us in the same way they would about pupils who have been off sick for long periods. The foot and mouth-affected pupils will then receive the same treatment as other people who have missed lessons."

Coun Hazel Harding, chairman of the education and lifelong learning committee at Lancashire County Council, said: "It is good news that the exam boards have recognised that foot and mouth can have a big impact on a pupil's education.

"There are teenagers who have been confined to farms and have struggled to keep up as a result.

"I hope all schools who know of pupils in this situation act to make sure they aren't disadvantaged by something which was out of their control."

There have been confirmed cases of foot and mouth in Clayton-le-Dale, near Blackburn, Great Harwood and Withnell, near Chorley.

Animals have been culled elsewhere in the area as a result of the disease -- often because they were just believed to be at risk.

Lancaster and Carnforth has also been badly hit by the disease.