Annual Survey of Examination Officers' Association members highlights growing workload, increasingly complex exam system and poor pay, conditions and support for exam office staff

The Ninth Annual Survey of members of the Examination Officers’ Association (EOA) has highlighted the key factors which are having an impact on their morale and ability to carry out their role. The increase in workload (particularly related to the introduction of the Diploma), the pressure of having to deal with an increasingly complex exam system  coupled with poor pay, conditions and limited access to professional development are all taking their toll on the community.

579 exam office staff responded to the survey, which was carried out between 18 December 2009 and 31 January 2010 amongst the EOA membership of 2200. 92.8% of the respondents were non-teaching support staff, with 46.1% from State Secondary Schools, and the remainder from Independent Secondary Schools (10.7%), 11-16 year old Secondary Schools (19.7%), Academies, Sixth Form Colleges, Further Education Colleges, Pupil Referral Units and Special Schools. 38.8% of respondents had been in post for 3-5 years with 6.5% having been in post less than a year. 42.5% of respondents worked full time in the exams office with a further 21.4% working full time but only during term time. 49.6% of respondents were paid between £9 and £12.99 per hour with 1.6% paid as low as £5 - 6.99 an hour. In many schools and colleges invigilators for exams, who are usually people external to the school, were paid more than the exam office staff.

47.4% of the respondents reported to either a Deputy Head, Vice Principal or Assistant Head, but 10.7% reported to the Bursar, Business Manager, Admin or HR Manager. This 10.7% reported that they were not well supported by their line manager – a similar response to last year, a group of management that has consistently shown less knowledge and understanding of the role of exam office staff than other members of the management team.

For 59.7% of respondents working conditions had stayed the same as last year, although some commented that these conditions were poor to start with. For 24.3% conditions had worsened and the reasons for this were a lack of support, poor physical conditions, a more onerous burden with the introduction of the Diploma and worsening student behaviour.

The survey asked respondents whether their centres would be introducing the Diploma for the next academic year and 71.6% thought there would be little take up and 23% no take up at all. The reasons given were it’s lack of popularity by current students, too far to travel in a rural consortium and objections by Heads. For those that were already running the Diploma nearly a quarter felt that the Diploma had had a big impact on their workload with comments focusing on the complex administration.

When asked about the service being provided by the Awarding Bodies, most respondents felt that most services had improved over the year, but there were many comments that the Awarding Bodies needed to streamline and co-ordinate their procedures as the present system, where they all had different procedures, made the process unnecessarily complex.

Andrew Harland, Chief Executive of the Examination Officers’ Association said: “The response to this survey has been very good and clearly illustrates some of the key issues for EOA members and the whole exam office community. Exams office staff now need to see the greater recognition of their role being converted into improvements in working conditions, pay and appropriate support. A greater focus on targeted training, that is directly linked to a more professional development programme for all exams office staff in schools and colleges, should be implemented as soon as possible to enable these people to deal with the complex issues involved in managing exam systems in their centres.”

For a full copy of the report for the Survey please click here  (EOA members only)

A summary of the report for the Survey is available by clicking here