Dear Editor,

The Caribbean Examinations Council must level the “paying” field as regards compensating teachers for marking examination scripts on their behalf. Teachers who mark SBAs for CXC ought to be paid by CXC in the same way that CXC pays teachers to mark its external examination papers, following CXC’s January and June examinations.

As a rule teachers annually execute, manage and mark time-consuming ordinary and advanced SBA examination scripts without any form of compensation. What is the reason for this discriminatory practise? CXC openly hires, provides ground or air transport and lodgings where necessary for teachers who mark its Caribbean Secondary Examination Council and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination scripts. Made aware of this unfair anomaly, teachers who mark SBAs ought no longer to give their labour for free.

In all subject areas, SBA management and marking run concurrently with teachers’ primary duty – delivery of subject syllabuses. SBA management and marking compete with tuition time. Thus, even under favourable levels of efficiency, the management and marking of SBA scripts often take weeks – in some cases months – to be completed thoroughly. As stated above these teachers receive no compensation, in contrast to their counterparts who mark CXC’s external exam scripts.

What is more, not only do teachers who mark CXC’s external exam scripts receive compensation for their labour, they also receive their normal teaching salary while away from teaching duty. That said, CXC must now level the “paying” field in so far as management and marking of exam scripts on its behalf is concerned.

B Joseph

bseph@yahoo.com