THE exams re-marking process should be made accessible to all families in order to restore confidence in the process, Sinn Féin Education Spokesperson Karen Mullan has said.The Foyle MLA was speaking after a controversy over marking standards, prompted the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) to reopen the re-marking process for AS and GCSE Level English literature.
“This is a welcome move from CCEA which will hopefully help restore confidence in the examinations process by enabling re-assessments for students who feel they were inaccurately marked,” she commented.
“I would also call on schools to work with CCEA to ensure there is no financial barrier to pupils from low-income families accessing this service.
“This is important because if the cost of a re-mark is beyond the means of a low-income family then it doesn’t matter how long the process is open for because they will never be able to access it.
“This is an obvious inequality in the system and I would urge all the examining boards operating here along with schools and the Education Authority to address it in the longer-term by ensuring the process is free of charge to pupils with free school meals entitlement,” she added.
