Responsibilities

Final responsibility for the administration of external examinations in a centre rests with the head of centre (the headteacher, principal, etc). In practice, the work is done by the examinations officer, who is responsible to the head of centre. In the past, the post of examinations officer was most commonly held by a teacher. However, with the increase in the amount of administration and workload involved in the job, and most recently the National Workload Agreement, it is most likely that the examinations officer will be an administrator rather than a teacher. If this is the case in your organisation, it is important that you get to know heads of academic departments so that you can work effectively with them.

As examinations officer, your work carries a very high degree of responsibility: if things go wrong, they can go spectacularly wrong, and students’ futures are potentially affected.

You should ensure that the senior management team in your centre is aware of the amount of work involved in being examinations officer and, consequently, gives you sufficient time to do the job, as well as appropriate access to guidance, support and training.