CXC vows to fix flaws in e-marking system
The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) has vowed to improve its training of markers in wake of the complaints against the recently implemented electronic marking system.
Senior assistant registrar in the Examinations, Administration and Security Division, Rodney Payne, on Tuesday informed markers of the council’s intention to address the issues.
“The Caribbean Examination Council recognises that the move to online marking has been challenging for some of our stakeholders. As part of our efforts to maintain our commitment to high levels of transparency and integrity in our examination results, we will be taking steps to better prepare all parties for standardising and script-marking exercises,” Payne told markers in an e-mail.
The steps he outlined will include on-territory orientation and training; online webinars on subject content; and online training on the marking tool.
The statement went on to encourage markers to complete a survey of this year’s marking to help the council’s plan for improvement .
E-marking was first introduced in 2013 by the council. It facilitates the marking of scripts from an online platform rather than a physical location.
According to the council, in it’s first year there was a 90 per cent correlation between scripts marked electronically and scripts marked manually.
As explained by Cleveland Sam, assistant registrar, public information and customer Services at the CXC, the scripts are scanned and separated by question, then individual questions are assigned to markers. They are then marked using random seeding and finally, samples of scripts at grade boundaries are reviewed to ensure cut scores are maintained.
Table marking was used prior to e-marking, wherein scripts were manually examined in marking centres across the region.
Last week, the Jamaica Observer in its Sunday edition highlighted the concerns of some educators regarding the recently implemented e-marking system.
The teachers raised concerns about the exam’s integrity, the degradation of scores awarded, as well as the credibility of the region’s education.
“CXC is the benchmark for the territory and when you are giving grades to children who are not competent, when they move away from here — whether they go to university here or abroad — it is going to show up that they are not competent, and then the entire education system is going to be blamed,” one teacher reasoned.
“The problem does not stem from what the teachers are doing, [but] what the exam is prescribing. That is why a lot of the teachers at the university level have a problem with the way that the students write, because they are coming to the universities with the grade ones from CSEC but at the same time they are not able to construct a proper persuasive essay or a proper expository essay,” she continued.
Teachers also complained about compensation, stating that remuneration was based on questions marked, which were weighted differently.
“At the end of the day, sitting down for seven hours for five days in a week to mark hundreds of scripts…of course you expect that you are going to be paid and the pay is good,” she reasoned. “[But] when they started the online marking they changed the pay system and you were paid per script, but the money was quoted in Bajan (Barbadian) dollars and questions are weighted differently,” one teacher told the Sunday Observer.
She said that instead of a flat rate as previously employed, an individual marking an essay question would for example receive roughly BBD $1.58 ($100.65) per script, while an individual marking comprehension would receive BBD$0.56 ($35.67) per paper.
“So when you do the conversion and you work it out, if you mark say 1,500 scripts you don’t even make close to the $80,000 that you used to make, especially if you are marking comprehension,” she disclosed. “And you’re using your time, your Internet, your electricity…because all they do is provide the software that you load on to your personal computer and you sit, on your time, and do it.”
The CXC, in defending this form of remuneration, stated that the new system ensured that rewards were granted based on the level of work conducted.
“With the flat rate everyone got the same reward, regardless of the volume marked or the quality of their work,” the CXC noted. “The new system seeks to reward those who complete more scripts with more pay. Those who are not able to maintain the standard are suspended and hence receive lower pay. We have also examined the effort on questions and have categorised them accordingly. As such, an average hour of effort should result in the same level of payment, even though the number of scripts marked may differ,” it continued.
But Payne last week told markers that there will be a review of the current system of remuneration.
“We have also taken the recommendations of the consultant who reviewed the marker compensation on board and improved the payments. With these changes we anticipate a better marking experience for the 2018 session,” he said.