Guys,
I just ran into this story and thought
the reasoning behind this decision was worth pondering on. Read on please:
A major exam board has become the
first in Britain to outsource marking to India as part of a cost-cutting
project aimed at speeding up the assessment process.
City & Guilds has been sending off
thousands of papers to be marked by an education firm based in Bangalore as
part of a pilot scheme. It had started outsourcing marking to MeritTrac as part
of the scheme launched 18 months ago.
"We have been undertaking a
comprehensive pilot to meet market demand for a 20-day turnaround for marking
on-demand exams. We have made a substantial investment in a more flexible way
of marking, which we are piloting for tests with clearly defined marking
schemes for right and wrong answers. This pilot accounts for 2.8 per cent of
exams marked in the past year," the board said in a statement.
"Highly-experienced,
subject-matter experts continuously monitor and uphold our standards. All of
our markers, no matter where they are based, undergo the same rigorous,
extensive selection and training processes - in fact they are trained
face-to-face by our chief examiners, alongside our senior exam team," it
added.
The deal involves functional skills
exams, which can be taken at any time of the year requiring access to a large
team of established markers who could quickly turn papers around en masse.
Functional skills exams are taken in
schools, colleges and work-based training centres and were developed in
response to employers' concerns over the practical application of basic skills.
Other exam boards in the UK have
previously outsourced data entry to firms based overseas but experts believe
this may be the first deal of its kind to involve marking. However, not all
academics are convinced about the merits of outsourcing the marking process.
"The idea of putting call centres
in India was that you had a very highly-educated workforce who can get the job
done more efficiently and cheaper than in this country. But you try ringing BT
(British Telecom) and it is incredibly hard to get any kind of technical advice
out of them," Prof Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and
Employment Research at Buckingham University said.
"I have no doubt about the
qualifications of the Indian people involved, but what experience do they have
of the courses that are being delivered in this country," he said.
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