Teachers, markers cast aspersions on e-marking

Some teachers say Botswana Examinations Council (BEC) was too quick and might have taken a risk by deciding that the 2022 Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) examination transcripts be marked electronically.

BEC announced last month that some BGCSE transcripts are being marked electronically as a way of moving away from the old way of doing things where teachers gathered in large numbers at marking centres.

BEC explained that with the new system, markers can to do their work from the comfort of their homes. They do not need to be gathered at marking centres to do their job.

However, some teachers feel the move was too sudden. They believe that Botswana might be in for a shock when the BGCSE results are released on the 3rd week of February this year.

“We are not against the system. We believe it is a good one but we feel that BEC should have not have tested the system on crucial final year examinations. They should have piloted the system on Mock exams at least and see what happens,” the concerned markers said.

Some of the markers say they are still in the dark about the whole system, alleging that the time they were given for familiarisation was not enough.

“We have been making mistakes and we fear for the quality of the results. We realised mistakes for instance when we mark an answer wrong, when recording the marks, that answer appears to be marked as correct.”

This makes them believe that BEC should have waited and ensured that markers are given ample time to learn and appreciate the system. Thy wonder if there are no other mistakes that were made and have gone undetected.

They fear that the system might see many cases of re-marking brought forward after results are released. Students who will not be able to question their marks will be disadvantaged greatly.

Dr Dorcas Morake, BEC’s Director of Examinations Administration and Certification told the media last December that there are some hiccups with the new system.

She said because the system is new, they are on their toes to resolve any challenges they encounter. They are still learning but given what they have seen to this end, it is not all bad, they do not believe that any candidate will be disadvantaged.

She assured that BEC intends to deliver the highest quality results.