Schools desperately short of exam invigilators

[noblegiraffe]

"The National Association of Exam Officers (NAEO) is set to publish advice tomorrow to help schools struggling to recruit enough trained officers. More staff are needed to oversee the first GCSE and A-level exams to be sat in two years, with a snap poll suggesting that 83 per cent of centres are still experiencing a deficiency.
But Jugjit Chima, chief executive officer of the NAEO, has warned that some schools and colleges are "stuck", having already implemented contingency plans, such as staggered starts to exams, but still not having enough staff to oversee next month's exams."

The suggestion is that admin staff and dinner ladies could be asked to invigilate.

Geoff Barton of the ASCL commented that part of the issue is that invigilators don't want to stand in exam halls packed with children who may well have covid (no requirement to isolate) and the government should reinstate free testing for schools, at least for the exam period to provide reassurance.

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/gcses-2022-schools-desperate-over-exam-invigilator-shortage

There are also serious concerns that desperation will lead to unsuitable candidates being hired, and an increase in exam malpractice.

www.tes.com/magazine/news/secondary/gcses-2022-crisis-fears-over-invigilator-shortage

Our local college is continually advertising for them over the last couple of months

Lots of ads round here too. Transport is an issue to our schools.

Exam concessions such as rest breaks and separate rooms have spiralled and this causes onward pressure too.

Plus A Level exams begin earlier than usual so more clashes of GCSE and A Level exams. Doesn't look like anyone looked at logistics when declaring exams would go ahead 'as normal', whilst tweaking the timetables.

I guess there should have been warning signs when an army of retired supply teachers didn't return to schools to keep them open in Jan/Feb despite the government's plea.

Doesn't surprise me. Seems like there are staff shortages near enough everywhere at the moment.

I don't get how he thinks reintroducing free LFTs for schools is going to do anything to help in itself though: is the implication that asymptomatic but covid positive pupils aren't to be allowed to take exams? Because that doesn't sound brilliantly workable either.

The exams are deliberately spaced out so that a pupil with covid wouldn't miss all the exams for a given subject. If they have sat at least one exam in a subject, they can be given a grade based on that exam.

Loads of ads for invigilators round us and what I assume are staff fairly desperate sounding posting & sharing on SM. Unfortunately for many it's just not an attractive proposition - the pay is pretty dismal, hours very limited and not regular or guaranteed work.

How much are they paid?
has anyone investigated the reason? is fact or assumption it’s about fears over catching covid?
I’ve seen various adverts but had nothing from school about being short of invigilators. Not seen anything in the news. I don’t many people restricting their life at this point due to covid so is that the reimbursement is just not attractive enough or there hasn’t been sufficient advertising to people who aren’t already involved?

I looked into applying for invigilator work at our local secondary, it's minimum wage work. A friend does it to supplement her freelance work during quiet times.

I stopped doing it but it was nothing to do with covid. It was minimum wage and they kept cutting back on how long you were to be there both before and after the start of the exam. In the end it just worked out as very little pay. Add that to not being able to go away for the exam season in May and June which is when the cheap holidays are, it just stopped being feasible. Which is a shame because I enjoyed it.

I've never worked as an invigilator, but I have done the training and TBH it's flippin' terrifying. So many complex rules and they put the fear of God into you about getting anything wrong. All for minimum wage and irregular hours.

So I'm not surprised.

Even the job description was enough to put me off @OctopusSay ! Lot of responsibility, including possibly needing to scribe for pupils identified with additional needs, plus as you say keeping in line with all exam regulations. All for minimum wage.

NMW £9.50ph.

Average cost to drive 1 mile is now between £0.34 and £1.23, - my nearest secondary school is 4.5 miles away so that 9 mile journey might end up costing me £10+ and I think anyone would seriously question whether £17.50 is enough to justify giving up a morning or afternoon. Those that don't if need the money won't bother for such a small amount and those that are relying on an income will need more hours.

Invigilator pay varies around me (South east) - the state schools and academies offer from approx £9.50 (min wage) - £11. The prosperous large academic independent school offers £15 per hour. We can't compete. But my SLT refused to listen to any feedback from appropriate staff that there was an issue. Exams officers have been retiring and resigning in droves.

I was expecting it to be low but nmw? And only paid for the hours of the exam, no travel costs? Instead of funnelling more money into private businesses for lateral flow tests it sounds like they just need to reward people appropriately!

I know someone who applied recently, the college expected him to pay for his own DBS check (£40) and attend numerous training sessions beforehand without being paid for his time. This is with no guarantee of actual work at minimum wage afterwards.

The pay and expectations haven’t changed. I’m assuming that headteachers have asked their usual pool of invigilators (which generally includes a lot of retired people) why they aren’t returning.

The article mentioned some have got better paid jobs in the meantime and also mentioned covid.

It’s like supply. The money is shocking.

If students were testing again that would reduce the chance of someone sitting in the crowded hall for 2-3 hours having Covid and passing it onto invigilators of other students (to answer a PP).

Hence this would also reduce the risk of students being ill and missing multiple exams, also of an invigilator being ill and then reducing the available pool of staff.

Passing it onto invigilators *or other students

Yes this is it, okay for those who aren't relying on a regular pay cheque, but for others a few hours here and there sometimes isn't very appealing- it's not at all surprising that people aren't jumping at the chance. It also gets complex with working in annual leave periods if you have another job as well, unless they reinvent the model or improve pay etc then meh.

I’m assuming some of the retired people who often acted as invigilators don’t fancy sitting in an exam hall possibly containing numerous students with COVID

It’ll be the minimum wage pay and hours, there’s a employee shortage across lots of sectors at the moment so lots of competition for staff, and minimum wage temporary hours just isn’t appealing, especially with the cost of living going up. Most likely not to do with Covid, most people have hog on with their lives now and would be fine with being in an exam hall, if only the pay and hours were better.

I'm an EO.

I have enough for this summer as many of mine are school parents and so not so bothered about the covid risk.. however two older invigilators did resign during pandemic.

We pay just under £11ph and I also provide tea and coffee and premium biscuits for my lovely invigilators 😁

I value them very much. Agree with the rules though as pp said, I do need to put the fear into them over the rules!

I’m the cover supervisor and during exams (mocks and real) me and the TAs are expected to step up. (Scribing and or reading) ,so for the duration we don’t have me and we don’t have tas. I’m having to book supply to cover us. But guess what? No supply available! And we can’t always use the teachers who are freed up from their classes being in the exam.

Some people have said that they’re now being paid for less hours so maybe some terms have changed?
if people no longer want to be an invigilator then they need to recruit more, relying on the retired isn’t maybe the best strategy? There’s no mechanism to make lateral flow compulsory. They’re not that accurate anyway and people are often infectious before it shows on LFT. If someone is or feels vulnerable is this going to change their mind? So is spending loads of money on that a good strategy? I would have thought far better to put money into training and reimbursing a new cohort.