Exam board AQA has written to GCSE and A-level markers to say “sorry” after they were hit with “unanticipated delays” to payments.
In emails sent last night, the exam board said it recognised that the experience examiners had been given was not one they would ”expect nor deserve”.
AQA markers were recently told that “technical defects” in the board’s payments system meant those working on some papers, including history A level and English literature GCSE, would face delays in receiving payments but would get them today (15 July).
But now further correspondence has informed the markers that they should now expect payment next Friday (22 July).
GCSE and A-level exam markers waiting for payment
The email, sent by the organisation’s chief operating officer, Mark Bedlow, states: ”I am really very sorry for the inconvenience this will cause.
“We have explored any number of ways to find an alternative way to pay you but it has simply not been possible.”
Posting on social media, some markers called the situation a “shambles” and said it was making examiners “disillusioned”.
And many added that they could not get through to AQA on the phone.
The news comes at the end of a difficult summer term for AQA, with the exam board being pulled up by the cross-party Commons Education Select Committee earlier this week for multiple instances of its exams including questions on topics not included in advance information given to students.
An AQA spokesperson said: “Our examiners are doing an outstanding job and we’re really grateful to them for all their hard work.
“Examiners are being paid, but we’ve had a few technical issues that have meant payments to some examiners have taken longer to process than normal, and we’re contacting individual examiners to let them know when they’ll receive their payments. We know this isn’t the experience our examiners deserve, so we’re working hard to improve it.”
