Sharp drop in teachers marking State exams despite some earning up to €8,000

There was a sharp drop-off in teachers willing to mark State exams this summer despite an increase in fees per script of up to 57 per cent.

While pay rates for teachers working as examiners this year varied, they ranged from €3,000 before tax for teachers marking Junior Cycle exams to about €8,000 before tax for teachers who marked Leaving Cert Irish and English exams.

The State Examinations Commission told an Oireachtas committee on Tuesday that while it had been experiencing significant difficulties attracting sufficient numbers of teachers to mark exams before the pandemic, shortages were even more acute in 2022.

Officials said this was possibly due to more teachers opting to go on holiday on foot of Covid-era restrictions.

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Andrea Feeney, the commission’s chief executive, said the number of Leaving Cert examiners this year was down 19 per cent on a decade ago, while the number of Junior Cycle examiners was down 38 per cent.

Over the same period, the number of candidates in the Leaving Cert was up by 12 per cent and 5 per cent in Junior Cycle.

The difficulties in sourcing examiners are one of several factors which resulted in delays to the Junior Cycle and Leaving Cert results this year.

Ms Feeney said the SEC sought to attract examiners with higher rates of pay per script, as well as an advertising campaign highlighting the professional benefits of marking papers and targeted communications with teachers.

These increased rates per script were up to 50 per cent higher for Leaving Cert papers and 57 per cent higher for Junior Cycle papers.

Teachers were typically contracted to work for 26 days to mark 200-350 papers, depending on the subject and exam.

“Despite these efforts, the numbers fell short and a range of interventions was needed to complete the marking of most subjects during the summer which included marking well beyond the normal marking window and examiners agreeing to take on additional scripts,” Ms Feeney said.

“These measures, while necessary, put pressure on the examining teams, contribute to a poor examiner experience, and impact on retention. Unfortunately, it was not possible to complete the marking in all subjects.”

Ms Feeney confirmed that teachers were still marking some subjects at Junior Cycle — including English and home economics papers — and the results are due to issue on November 23rd.

When asked by committee chairman Paul Kehoe if the teaching contract should be amended to obliged teachers to work as examiners, she said that was an issue for policymakers to consider.

However, she said Irish education had a long and proud history of teachers opting in to work to mark State exams.

Countries such as France, she said, oblige a proportion of teachers to mark end-of-school exams each year, the committee heard.

Ms Feeney also confirmed that additional time may be needed to mark next year’s Leaving Cert if a “postmarking adjustment” is carried out on results.

This year, she said, detailed work was required to adjust marks after the exams to ensure they were no lower than last year following a pledge from Minister for Education Norma Foley.

Ms Foley has pledged that this year there will be no “cliff-face” drop in grades, suggesting that some form of postmarking intervention may be required again in 2023.