Trainee teachers mark exams

A row over exams has blown up today after it emerged that an exam board is to recruit trainee teachers to mark papers. The initiative by EdExcel - criticised last year for a string of A-level blunders - angered headteachers and parents, who warned it would further undermine public confidence in exams, which can determine children's futures.

This summer, EdExcel is recruiting 30 students on postgraduate teaching courses at the University of London Institute of Education to mark history GCSE papers. If successful the pilot would be extended, it said.

However the Government's exam board regulator, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, said today it was "looking carefully" at the plan. A spokesman said: "The awarding bodies are required to ensure that all markers are supervised by experienced senior examiners."

EdExcel's move reflects the shortage of examiners following the vast increase in exam scripts caused by Government reforms.

An EdExcel spokesman said: "We have to look to find examiners within the education industry where we can. There is no requirement that examiners should be teachers."

The students being taken on will have completed their final year of training when marking begins. EdExcel estimates that it will award more than 10 million marks this summer, up from four million two years ago, because of the proliferation of academic and vocational exams.

But the news that boards are recruiting students for marking has prompted fresh alarm, threatening confidence in the reliability of school exams. A poll today in the Times Educational Supplement shows that more than 40 per cent of primary teachers and nearly a third of secondary teachers are "less than confident" in the external marking of tests.

Last year, EdExcel received complaints over exam blunders. The Prime Minister's spokesman accused it of "shoddy" work after it was said to have made mistakes such as losing coursework. The board later got a clean bill of health in a Government audit but schools have little confidence that this summer's exams will not see more problems.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association, said that the exams system would see a meltdown unless the Government cuts the number of tests children face. And Geoffrey Lucas, secretary of the Headmasters' Conference, representing top independent schools, said the only reason appeals over exam grades had not risen hugely is because this year grades can now go down as well as up, making students think twice before questioning their marks.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "Last year, the quality of marking was very poor and I see nothing to suggest the problems will not be repeated. Certainly, I am very dubious about whether it is right for trainee teachers to be markers.

"Parents would want to feel that the people marking their children's exams at least have some experience of teaching them."

Margaret Morrissey, spokesman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "These students will have only just finished taking exams themselves. They may have been on teaching practice in schools but they certainly won't have the experience to judge pupils' work to the standards parents have a right to expect."

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Schools said: "Every examiner recruited has to satisfy stringent standards. The QCA ensures that markers have degrees and meet the tough criteria we require."