Teachers share €67m pay-pot from correcting State exams in 2024
Gordon Deegan
External examinations staff, mainly comprised of school teachers, last year shared a pay-pot of €67.1 million for correcting and supervising state exams.
According to the 2024 annual accounts for the State Examinations Commission (SEC), this is an eight per cent increase on the €61.9 million paid out in 2023.
The examiners enjoyed this increase due to the €900 enhancement payment to Leaving Cert examiners provided by the SEC, with €700 paid to Junior Cert examiners.
This also factored in a public sector pay increase of 3.53 per cent.
Last year, Leaving Cert examiners typically earned between €7,900 and €11,142, depending on the subject and number of scripts marked, while teachers correcting Junior Cert exams earned between €4,967 and €5,125.
The increase in pay in recent years comes against the background of issues with recruitment and retention of teachers for examiner roles.
The total bill for external examinations staff came to €83.1 million, made up of salaries and wages of €67.1 million, travel and subsistence costs of €12.76 million, attendants' costs of €2.96 million, and postage/telephone costs of €272,991.
The staff costs for SEC directly employed staff totalled €18.9 million, which included €2 million in overtime.
The €18.9 million in staff costs for directly employed SEC staff resulted in staff costs between directly employed staff and External examiners climbing from €92.5 million to €102 million.
The SEC’s total spend increased from €108.78 million to €122.5 million, and the additional spend was addressed by Government grants increasing from €107.87 million to €125.44 million.
A note attached to the accounts states that “from 2017 to 2023, SEC was in a deficit position”.
It stated that the SEC worked very closely with the Department of Education to secure adequate funding to meet all of its liabilities and financial obligations and thereby eliminating the accumulated deficit”.
It stated that having secured additional funding in 2024 for end-of-year liabilities and financial commitments, the State Examinations Commission is reporting a surplus of €2 million for 2024.
A note attached to the accounts states that “as part of Budget 2025, Government announced that examination fees would be waived for the 2025 state examinations”.
The note states that the SEC received supplementary non-pay funding of €12 million in December 2024 relating to this measure.
A separate note states that appeal fees were reintroduced from 2023 at a rate of €40 per Leaving Certificate subject, and in the event of a successful appeal, this fee is refunded.
The accounts show that in 2024, the SEC increased its revenues from appeals from €463,863 to €527,557.
A further note states that it is the intention of the SEC that accumulated compensatory leave totalling €1.17 million as of December 31st, 2024 “will be reduced in the coming years".
The note states that the SEC “is seeking to actively manage compensatory leave, but taking compensatory leave requires additional attendance by other staff without which delivery of the examination service would simply not be possible within current staffing levels”.
Eight members of staff under ‘key management personnel’ shared €1.06 million in pay last year.
