GCSE students in Britain may have papers marked in Spain

THE shortage of examiners in Britain may lead to GCSE papers coming to Spain according to OCR, one of the largest exam boards in England.

Michael O’Sullivan, chief executive of OCR’s sister company Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) told the Times, “The amount of scripts to be marked and graded in June and July is already much higher than before.”

CIE already has examiners in Spain and only collaborate with qualified teachers who teach in English. Any overseas markers also have to go through the same checks as UK based examiners.

Regarding the GCSE papers an OCR spokesman said “OCR currently has no overseas examiners. However, it is an option being explored, especially as our technology makes it possible.”

OCR has estimated that the present number of 15,000 examiners will need an extra 5,000 in 2016. Neil Walker, a head teacher at Benfield School in Newcastle believes that consistency could be affected particularly in subjects such as English and history.

He also called the recruitment process into question saying, “They would have to take away face to face meetings between boards and markers.”

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