Teachers fear exam marking disaster

The head of the Edexcel exam board warns today that there are severe difficulties in recruiting enough markers to cope with the vast increase in exam scripts, amid claims by headteachers that the system is at breaking point.

In his first interview since his board was given a clean bill of health by government exams watchdogs after a series of blunders over scripts, John Kerr, the chief executive of Edexcel, spoke of his concern.

His comments were echoed by John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads' Association, who compared the problems of the examination system to those of to Railtrack.

"This country has a vivid memory of a disaster when a system under huge pressure of expansion is underfunded, subjected to constant government interference and lacks clear, strategic planning," he told an association conference in Bournemouth. "In the way that the Hatfield disaster exposed the underlying problems of the rail network, the Edexcel problems are a warning that 'examtrack' has deep problems, which must be addressed sooner rather than later."

Exam boards found it difficult to recruit markers last summer, with schools reporting growing numbers of delayed results, but Mr Kerr said the position was likely to worsen because many examiners were nearing retirement age. Headteachers were also becoming more reluctant for their staff to volunteer to mark scripts, he said. "They feel the increasing pressures on their schools mean there are more demands on their time."

Representatives of all the exam boards are due to meet this week to discuss the crisis.

The number of marks awarded by Edexcel has rocketed from 4.1 million in 2000 to 7.9 million last year. This year, the figure is expected to top 10 million as a result of an increase in students taking key skills and vocational qualification courses.

Mr Kerr said the board expected to be able to cope this summer, but difficulties were likely to emerge in the longer term. However, he acknowledged that all boards were already finding problems in recruitment for subjects like English, history, psychology, and information and communications technology.

Marking was now a year-round job, with a large increase in the number of scripts to be graded in January as AS-level pupils, in particular, followed more modular courses.

"We need a strong education debate on how we're going to take on the proposals in the Green Paper [on the future of education from ages 14 to 19]," Mr Kerr said. "Examiner recruitment is a key part of that. I don't think we would want to go down the French road, where you're forced to do it, but it would be nice if it could be recognised as part of a teacher's professional development."

Mr Dunford told the SHA conference that one solution would be to allow senior teachers to mark their own pupils' scripts. He said the problems had been caused because of "our national obsession with levels and grades at every age".

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the Government's exams watchdog, was setting 30 million test papers a year and bright children could expect to take 105 exams during their school career. "One examination board has this year already buckled under the pressure," he said, adding that if Edexcel's faults "are not taken as a warning of a potential future disaster, the present government will be seen as negligent when that disaster occurs".

Meanwhile, Mr Kerr denied the exam blunders had led to loss of confidence in the board, saying: "I haven't lost a single centre or a single member of staff or a single examiner as a result.'' The mistakes included a misprint in an AS-level maths exam and the omission of pages in a communications paper.