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Exclusive: Seven thousand more markers ‘needed to cope with exam reforms’

Exclusive: Seven thousand more markers ‘needed to cope with exam reforms’

Teachers have become ‘more important than ever’ as examiners but they’re often deterred because of workload, report warns

20th January 2017, 12:01pm

Eleanor Busby

Thousands more teachers will need to become exam markers to ensure the system can cope with the significant challenges presented by GCSE and A-level reform, new research shows.

Teachers’ professional expertise as examiners has become “more important than ever” in the wake of qualification overhauls, according to a report from a working group on building examiner capacity.

But many teachers are currently deterred from marking because of the workload and the unprofessional image created by piecework fees.

Findings shared exclusively with TES reveal that approximately 41,000 teachers will need to serve as examiners by 2019 - which means an additional 7,000 teachers - to meet an increased demand during the summer period, when more exams will be taken in the wake of reforms.

The report, from the headteachers’ associations, the Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) and exam boards, says that teachers’ participation is a “prerequisite to that system delivering the right results”.

Examining ‘is valuable CPD’

It argues that more examiners are needed to ensure that accurate, timely results are not jeopardised.

The working group has launched an online hub for examiners and two new award schemes, which will recognise exceptional individual examiners and schools’ contributions, as part of a series of commitments to attract and retain teachers into the exams system and to prevent a shortage.

Dale Bassett, from the AQA exam board, who chairs the working group on building examiner capacity and culture, said: “Exam boards can always do more to improve and to pre-emptively address the challenges presented by qualification reform.”

The report, which is being launched on Monday, also suggests that schools should do more to recognise examining as valuable teacher CPD and that exam boards should improve training.

This is an edited article from the 20 January edition of TES. Subscribers can read the full article here . To subscribe, click here. To download the digital edition, Android users can click here and iOS users can click here. TES magazine is available at all good newsagents.