“Hearing a student complaining that they’ve been marked incorrectly in the national examinations makes me sad,” says 55-year-old Hadidja Mukamazimpaka, who has been marking national examinations for close to 20 years. The mother-of-four testifies that with the conveyor-belt system of marking, a scheme where one answer booklet is reviewed by around 10 people (including markers, checkers, team leader and Chief Marker), there is no way a marker can score a booklet wrongly. “Even when we check,” she continues, “We find slight errors that can hardly ever impact a student’s results.” Mukamazimpaka is currently a Team Leader, managing a team of around five markers and a checker at Collège du Christ-Roi de Nyanza, presently one of the national examination marking centres for advanced level across the country. Here, around 532 (including markers, checkers and team leaders) have been deployed by the National Examination and School Inspection Authority (NESA) to read, verify and score answer booklets of different Advanced Level students who sat for History, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics as well as Biology examinations. Mukamazimpaka was privileged to be a marker for national examinations for the first time in 2003. At the time, there were only 28 markers at the marking centre, and she was the second woman to be included in the markers’ team. She marked for two years before she was promoted to become a team leader. She now counts almost 20 years of experience. According to Mukamazimpaka, there has been improvement in the national examination marking scheme. In 2003, when she started marking, only one marker would read and score the whole envelope of answer booklets; each booklet containing 23 questions or more. “It wasn’t easy for us and would result in many errors. Even during cross-marking and checking, errors wouldn’t be eliminated at a higher rate because a person is bound to make errors especially when doing something alone,” she said. “The conveyor-belt system has reduced around 80 per cent of errors that were made back then. Now, we don’t see errors or experience cheating or other malpractices because a marker is assigned not more than five questions and can easily master them. The checker also verifies if what the marker has marked is correct. I would say there are no errors in this marking system.” Mukazimazimpaka also noted that things are well-organised to the extent she never faces issues with any of the members of her team. “I always say that someone who arranged this system is smart because the roles and responsibilities of each player involved are well-defined. You complete the marking activity without facing any issue,” she said. She revealed that she is being paid Rwf 13,000 per day and can spend around a month doing the job. Back in 2003 when she started marking, she said the then institution in charge of national examinations would pay a marker according to the number of booklets they marked, which she said would result in more errors as markers scored answer booklets thinking about how much they could make. But currently, she continued, through the conveyor-belt system, the markers are paid the same amount for the entire week of coordination (week 1) and are given an equal number of booklets to mark during the actual marking. “We divide the number of booklets with the number of markers so that they can make the same money. That helps them to mark the students properly and transparently,” she said, adding that the markers for A Level can go back home with an amount between Rwf 180,000 to Rwf 200,000. Mukamazimpaka revealed that the money she has been earning from marking has for years helped her pay school fees for her children, especially in term 1, adding that among her four children, one has graduated from the university and the other is a high school graduate. Tackling the values a marker should have, she said these revolve around understanding that the children they are marking are children of the country and putting themselves in the shoes of their parents and teachers, as well as realising that the activity they are doing has an impact on the future of those children. She also noted that good examination marking reflects respecting team members, doing smart work and not disclosing the marks to the public when not in charge, adding that the bad characteristics include spreading rumours and overlooking team work. Mukamazimpaka is currently coaching other markers, preparing them to become good team leaders in the future as she seeks to retire in not later than five years.
