Questions over matric marking

Teachers who want to mark final matric exams will have to pass a competency test, a government team has recommended.

Only in Western Cape last year has such testing been enforced, the team found.

Some teachers' unions welcomed the proposal but the biggest of them, the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, opposed it.

The team said that marking was one of the most crucial phases of exams.

"Marking has to be by qualified professionals," its report said. "Currently, this is the weakest link in the assessment process, apart from the setting of the papers."

It said 2013 had been the worst in respect of matric marking problems - and that was the year in which the highest pass rate was proclaimed.

Incompetent markers were probably a significant factor in the "inflated" marks.

The team said marking problems included:

• Tribal or political favouritism in the appointment of markers;
• Giving marking jobs as favours to friends; and
• Appointing incompetent markers.

The team said that quality must be the most important criterion for appointing markers and that candidate markers must be required to demonstrate their competence.

The National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA, and the SA Onderwysersunie, welcomed tests for markers.

But the SA Democratic Teachers' Union said that it was opposed to them.

The president of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation, Basil Manuel, said: "The most competent teachers must be used or pupils will be disadvantaged."

Sadtu spokesman Nomusa Cembi said: "Marking does not happen in a vacuum. It is not clear what is wrong.

"For years they [markers] have been good enough but now they are made to feel that they are not good enough to mark."