Oh dear god they still don't have enough markers for GCSE English

Ironic that non British born writers have been removed from Gove's English Literature syllabus, but I suspect that many well educated 'non British born' examiners will be being recruited to mark these online papers.

This is a big business.

Publishing companies like Murdoch's Pearson make a fortune out of this. Gove works for Murdoch.

Their unethical conduct is at the expense of teenagers' results and mental health, and teachers marking on appalling pay and condition.

Their contempt for the 'customers' and exam markers is clear.

Schools and teachers should boycott the exam boards.

You sign a new contract each year with AQA so you can walk away whenever you want noble

With AQA it's partly because you now have to mark online which is ok for short questions but hard for essay type ones
It will be worse next year I think when people work out what it's like marking on screen
Lots of experienced people have left because of this

Apologies if this has already been posted, but what with the horrendous maths papers this week and that OCR students studying Romeo and Juliet effectively 'lost' 25% of marks due to an erroneous question.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/pupils-ridicule-exam-board-over-shakespeare-error-gcse-paper

I'd be amazed if they had enough markers. I last marked GCSE English Language 9 years ago, and along with several other markers at my school returned scripts, unmarked after they changed the mark scheme half way through the marking. This was the AQA.

I used to get £3.50 a paper for Lit. It adds up if you do hundreds, but if you do hundreds you're talking morning, noon and night for 3 weeks. Nearly killed me every time I did it.

It does give you an amazing insight though which helps so much when you're teaching. You know exactly what gets the marks and what doesn't.

Last year we were told that Edexcel weren't remarking English any more and that if we asked for remarks of papers that were on the borderline then all they would check was that the marks had been added up and entered properly. I don't know if this is still the case but I hope not- marking English is so subjective and examiners differ all the time. A tired examiner on their 20th paper (60th essay) of the day may well miss a couple of points that could have made a huge difference to that student.

It might not be as bad as you think. One of the teachers in my department applied to mark AQA English this year, was accepted, and then they got back to her and said they had no Language vacancies left, only Literature. Plus, there's a large pool of people who used to moderate coursework who may well have gone over to the exam.

As an experienced examiner (and TL), I agree that the pay is too low, and if AQA have cut the rate whilst the duration of the exam has increased, then that is appalling.

DoctorDonna

Point taken.

And my vote will not be going to the Conservatives

bear in mind. I corrected that twice and my phone still changed it!

As an English teacher, this is an absolute joke. Except it isn't, as kids' results will be impacted and so will teachers' pay. And if results drop nationally, this year will stand as an aberration, tougher exams etc - but in 6 years' time, the kids who did their exams this year and got disappointing grades through no fault of their own will be competing for jobs with other kids who took their exams a year or two before and whose results will be much better. Employers won't beat in mind the political background for the 2017 season! Dreadful.

So what does all this mean for results this year. They can lower the grade boundaries, but can they really lower them so much a 'c' ends up being less than 20%. The only alternative I can see is that they find a way to illegally bump up the marks which is unfair to the teachers and students who have successfully earned their result.

@NotYoda we've been making a fuss since the changes were announced. No one cares. We need parents to make a fuss. There are more of you and they haven't written off your votes!

As a parent I am feeling oddly (wrongly) reassured about this fiasco. Hopefully massive stinking fuss will be made by you (poor) teachers.

I am going to be writing a very nice long letter to my sons' teachers, thanking them for their help and forbearance this year

Fucking Gove

Oh and the pay has been reduced this year for Maths as well. Not sure about other subjects.

I marked GCSE English for many years (since it began and 16+ and GCE before that). I marked last year and was offered a senior position on the new spec. I went along to the first training meeting after which, reluctantly, I decided to retire. The surprising thing was that several others announced their intention to do the same.

A friend of mine who is doing this said they were told to mark 'leniently'. I was like, "so your not following the mark scheme then". She replied, "apparently not".

I used to mark Lit and it is hard, hard work. It's 20 loong papers a day for 21 days straight with no right answers. I've been teaching this year to a new syllabus with no idea where the 'pass mark' might sit. I don't want the responsibility of these kids' grades any more! I'm out.

I've marked the poetry paper for AQA for the last few years. I was offered a contract for lit paper 2 this year- it's an hour longer, includes another text, 4 essays instead of 2- and they're paying about 50p more per script. It's just not worth it or even manageable for someone who's teaching full time. I've no idea how they think all these scripts will be reliably marked.

I normally mark and am not this year due to ill health. It used to be worth while but it's more difficult now :(?

Looks like knowing the main characters' names in Shakespeare's best known works isn't a prerequisite for those setting the papers so you'd think anyone could mark them!

Oh great! Poor dd2 is taking these bloody exams.....

This is not good. Coupled with the ridiculous errors on the Lit papers. English results this year could be a complete disaster.