Irish Teacher: Exam markers are opting out because they’re sick of being undercut, ignored and gaslit

"The saddest thing in all of this is that children are the ones suffering most."

The process of ageing is compassionately slow, save for occasional harsher moments.

I had one this week when a softly spoken South African optometrist described how the human eye degenerates over time, before telling me I need varifocals.

The youngster at the desk informed me that ‘varifocals’ wouldn’t work on the hip frames I’d chosen. I left with two separate pairs against the optometrist’s advice. But I got the message. I’m ageing. I have aged. My denial is surface level only, for as long as I can get away with it (or my funky, funky frames).

The Department of Education, by comparison, is slow to pick up on signs that things aren’t quite as they used to be — they just can’t see.

Explaining the delay in Junior Cycle results, The State Exam Commission (SEC) reports, “the number of examiners available to mark Junior Cycle examinations this year was, at 1270 examiners, 30% less than the number who had marked the 2019 Junior Cycle examinations.”

Why is that?

Well, first up, according to teachers I interviewed, the experience of marking exams is unsustainable.

All complained of having too little time to mark. They were generally given approximately 30 days, with no days off or weekends.

For one teacher, it was the lack of respect that upset her most.

“I had cleared two days off for a family wedding. I gave plenty of notice and knew I’d have to make it up. The morning of the wedding, my supervisor rang four times. Eventually my partner had to answer the phone and explain that I was unavailable, but I still had to send information to make her stop.”

A younger teacher, only just qualified, was expected to mark 25 scripts in one day. Marking Junior Cycle exams, that meant 30 mins per two-hour exam.

“I was working from eight or nine in the morning until 10 at night. I couldn’t go faster. It’s discouraging to decide that you’ll do something good because you believe it will be helpful, it’s experience and maybe some money, only to be worked into the ground. I lost faith in the system entirely.”

English examiners are paid between €8.36 and €9.29 at Junior Cycle per script depending on the level. This follows five years of university study and however many years of experience in the classroom.

A more experienced teacher was asked to mark 10 students, 20 scripts per day, of Leaving Cert English, among the higher paid exams. She estimates receiving about €6000 after tax for her work. That’s a significant amount of money for anyone. But a minimum of 12 hours shifts, 30 days in a row, makes it difficult for many. This also comes after a considerable bump in pay for examiners of between 17% and up to 50% per script at Leaving Certificate.

She says, “they need to provide some flexibility with the time. Working for 30 days at that intensity without a break is not sustainable. I was able to do it because I don’t have kids, but I still needed to look after myself and mind my mental health.”

Teaching is a predominantly female profession and women, as we know, carry the care load.

An older teacher I interviewed recalls her daughter begging her to stop correcting.

“I was carting my two children around to various camps during the day. To meet my quota, I was up until two o clock in the morning. At the time, marking maths, I got €100 a day after tax.”

My second suggestion is that teachers are opting out because they’re sick of being undercut, ignored and gaslit.

How? Well, there’s the fact that Norma Foley is sabotaging courses by moving exams without any pedagogically sound reasoning, against the wishes of pretty much everybody, including the people who write the exams and design the curriculum.

There’s the fact that we now know that schools were unsafe during Covid, and people resent it.

There’s the fact that Norma Foley has announced that 40% of Leaving Certificate work will be marked by teachers when unions have said they’re opposed to it.

Now, I agree with continuous assessment but simply telling teachers to do it is not the same as putting supports in place and listening respectfully to legitimate concerns.

The saddest thing in all of this is that children are the ones suffering most.

The SEC declares “It has an absolute responsibility to examination candidates to ensure that their work is marked to the highest standards of quality.”

That much is clear. The rest, to me, new glasses or not, seems decidedly fuzzy.