"As the chief examiner for GCSE English, I want to rebut completely this article with unnamed sources in the Guardian today, which contains many factual inaccuracies. It is damaging and I would like to set the record straight.

I work closely with Edexcel and have the overall responsibility for the quality of marking within QCA’s Code of Practice.  If any examiner, be they expert or graduate, gives me or my highly experienced team leaders cause for concern in either their level of subject expertise or quality of marking, they are immediately stopped from marking.

I can report that for the GCSE English items marked by graduates the percentage accuracy was extremely high on “backreading” – where I and my team leaders  check markers’ work on a very regular basis.  We had no issues with the quality of their marking. Epen gives the senior team far more visibility, instant feedback and confidence in the quality of marking and therefore results in greater accuracy of marking than that of the traditional paper based system."

Pam Taylor