Exam invigilators complain about underpayment

Mar 17, 2018 News

as 2018 sitting of NGSA nears

The National Grade Six Assessment [NGSA] is slated to commence in just under a fortnight, but some invigilators are not too pleased with the financial package that has been budgeted for them.

Invigilators are the people recruited to monitor and supervise the candidates who participate in the various examinations including the National Grade Two Assessment [NGTA], the National Grade Four Assessment [NGFA], NGSA and the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate [CSEC].

But quite a few of the invigilators have been raising concerns that although at recent regional meetings they were reminded of the importance of their role to oversee the examination processes, no mention was made of them being eligible for improved compensation.

The invigilators, some of whom have been invigilating for a number of years, claimed that they had reason to believe that an increase was imminent this year. This, they confided, was warranted, since the last increase invigilators were afforded was some three years ago when the payment per day moved from $900 to $1,100. This publication was told that the supervisors of the invigilators are currently eligible for $1,800 per day.

“But the work is strenuous,” said an invigilator who equipped, “nowhere in the world, not even other jobs right here in Guyana, a day pay is less than $2,000. This is breaking the law…the Ministry, which is a representation of the Government, is breaking the same Government’s law by underpaying us,” an evidently upset invigilator told this publication.

Kaieteur News was informed that a work day for invigilators usual commences from as early as 06:00 hours, at which time the supervisors are required to uplift well-secured examination papers from a police station, usually within the vicinity of the examination centre. The examination papers are kept in the care of the police station in order to safeguard their integrity.

Once securely uplifted, the invigilators are then required to commence their task of monitoring candidates as they enter the examination centres.

“We have to keep our eyes on all of these candidates to ensure there is no cheating. We have to ensure they are not using calculators or interacting, and it is not easy. Half of them may even ask to go to the washroom at the same time, but we can’t have all of them go at the same time, because we have to accompany them one at a time…this means if 100 of them have to go, we have to walk 100 times to the washroom to ensure that they do not cheat in any way, and this is really not easy,” the invigilators have shared.

In fact, they told this publication that while accompanying young candidates to the washroom is a relatively decent task, it becomes quite a challenge to do the same for the older and much more developed candidates, particularly the males. Kaieteur News was informed that the majority of invigilators are females and “it isn’t always easy for females to be watching these mature male students doing their business.”

The invigilators in qualifying the need for an increase in their remuneration said that not only are they, at times, deprived of a lunch break sometimes, but they are even required to work beyond 15:30 hours without break.

“Whenever the papers are done, only then we can stop working…if a paper goes into the lunch break we have to keep working…Although we are entitled to a break at 11:30, there are some papers that go beyond that, but regardless of when the paper ends, even if it is 12:29, we have to resume at 12:30,” the invigilators explained.

According to the invigilators, while they accept that the work could be tedious and very demanding, the remuneration is certainly not commensurate.

“We need the Education Ministry, the Finance Ministry, the Government or whoever needs to deal with this to think about us too…everybody getting increase, but nobody is thinking about the work that we have to do,” the invigilators appealed.

When contacted yesterday, a public relations official attached to the Ministry said that while the concerns of the invigilators had not yet reached that department, efforts will be made to look into the matter.

The 2018 sitting of the NGSA examination is slated to commence on March 28 and will continue the following day [March 29] during which pupils from primary level schools across the country will be assessed in the subject areas of Mathematics, English, Social Studies and Science.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News