Due to the cancellation of formal exams because of COVID, teachers across the UK are currently creating, marking and moderating exams - work that would usually be carried out by exam boards. It is understood this represents a minimum of 28 hours of extra work, on top of the additional pressures COVID has already put on school staff. 

In Scotland, a one-off payment of £400 is being made to teachers and lecturers this year following cancellation of the 2021 National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exam diet due to Covid-19. The fee is a recognition of the “additional workload related to the alternative certification model”, which involves assessments being set, marked and moderated by teachers rather than the SQA.

There is no equivalent across the rest of the UK. Please sign this petition to ask the government to go a small way towards recognising the hard work of our nation’s teachers by making this payment wherever they might be based.