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David Brill and agencies
Errors in GCSE marking rose by nearly 13% last year since 2003, it has been revealed.
With the latest set of results due tomorrow, many students will query their grades in the hope of achieving a better mark. Last year, a record 45,439 queries were submitted - a rise of 24% from 2003 - and 11,000 grades were changed.
"Exam boards must get their act together," said Sarah Teather, education spokeswoman for the Liberal Democrats, whose parliamentary questions revealed the scale of the problem. "Every summer, hard-working pupils have to endure newspapers and politicians saying exams are getting easier and belittling their achievements. The stress that increasing numbers of pupils endure after receiving the wrong grades goes unrecognized.
"Too many students are having to battle bureaucracy to correct mistakes made by exam boards."
The government has invested heavily in the exam-monitoring body the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA). Spending on the QCA has gone up by 70% since 2002/3, to £135m, while schools spend an extra £42m since that period on entering their students into exams.
"The government must justify the rising costs of the exam system, by demanding better performance from exam boards," Ms Teather said.
A QCA spokeswoman said: "The number of appeals remains a small proportion of the 26m papers taken every summer. Over £100m has been invested in making sure there are enough markers and examiners, who are rigorously trained and monitored, to improve the system."
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