I've been posting very little the last couple of weeks- apart from the reflections. The reason for this is that I'm in the middle of supervising examinations. Yes it's that time of the year again, which means Christmas is approaching with all the subtlety of a road train.

In NSW we have two major education certificates- the School Certificate at the end of Year 10 and the Higher School Certificate at the end of Year 12. Although both certificates are now largely based on assessment tasks they also include an examination in each subject conducted independently of schools by the Board of Studies.

The School Certificate consists of 2 full days of exams in 4 subject areas. The HSC covers all subjects and is held over 4 weeks.

My part in the process is to organise the actual conduct of the examinations in Narrabri, including employing staff, collecting test papers each day, overseeing the actual exam time, then collecting all of the completed papers and preparing them to be returned to Sydney where they are distributed to markers. At every stage, we try to keep meticulous records to ensure that all work done by students in the examination room finds its way to the markers.

Over the years all of the work has been increasingly computerised. For example, the markers once had to spend several weeks at a centralised marking place. Now most, if not all, of the answers books are scanned into computers and then marked on screen. The markers might have to spend a few days ensuring that they are all conforming to the required standard of marking so that all papers are marked uniformly. After that the papers are downloaded over the internet and marked at home.

The School Certificate tested are supposedly being ended this year. It's now compulsory for children to either be at school or doing some other form of training until they turn 17, so the value of the School Certificate is much less when only potential university students completed Year 12.

I have about another 2 weeks to go of working two full-time jobs at the same time. My blog posts will continue to be rather light until then.