Many nationwide standardized exams are administered each year in our country, attended by a large number of students. These exams involve numerous personnel such as invigilators, building supervisors and exam room presidents. In addition to their duties, invigilators and other exam staff receive payment for their work. These fees are announced annually and updated when changes occur. The number of personnel assigned to each exam varies with the type of exam and the size of the exam venue. Fees paid to staff also differ across many exams.
With the arrival of 2016, salaries and various exam-related payments, including those for exam staff, were increased. Although the increases varied by percentage, they were welcomed by many teachers and others serving as invigilators. Among these increases, fees for Open Education Faculty (Açık Öğretim Fakültesi, AÖF) exam staff were raised as well. According to the latest announced exam fees, the daily payment for a teacher who serves solely as an invigilator in an open education exam classroom is set at 85 TL. Under the category of Açık Öğretim görev ücretleri, the fee for personnel serving as the exam room president in an open education exam is announced as 95 TL.
Historically, fees for ÖSYM-administered exams have been among the highest for large-scale national examinations. With the 2016 adjustments, Ministry of National Education (MEB) exam duty fees were also increased and drew closer to ÖSYM rates. Compared to those higher payments, the open education exam fees remained the lowest among common exam duty rates.
How Are Open Education Exam Fees Paid?
As with other payments, the fees for Açık Öğretim exam duties are paid via bank transfer. Invigilators and other teachers assigned to these exams receive their fees directly into their bank accounts using their IBAN numbers. As every year, an official approval was signed for the centralized exam fees. The Ministry of National Education’s official approval regarding the 2016 Centralized System Exams fees was signed on May 5, 2016. Following that approval, the necessary updates were made in the Centralized System Exams Fee Accrual Program.
In short, according to the approval: payments for some roles—such as building director, deputy building director, exam room president, invigilator, reserve invigilator and assistant invigilator for disabled candidates—will be processed by the relevant school directorates through the system. For certain secondary education transition exams, as before, a specific group of personnel will continue to receive an additional five hours of supplementary lesson pay. Prior to the exams, all registration, entry, verification and approval procedures must be completed on time. After all entries are completed, personnel taking part in exams who are MEB employees should update their IBANs via the IBAN update section on MEBBİS to ensure there are no problems with their payment details; this updates the IBAN information for all recorded exam transactions. Once the ministry’s approval is obtained, it is important that the announcement be urgently communicated to all district and school directorates.
Under previous practice, differences in pay sometimes occurred among staff serving in the same exam. With the 2016–2017 public collective agreement, MEB ended the practice of paying different fees to teachers serving in identical roles for the same exams. From that point on, it was decided that payments to teachers serving in centralized exams conducted by the Ministry of National Education would be made not on the basis of supplementary lesson rules, but in accordance with the Procedures and Principles on Exam Fees enacted by a Council of Ministers decision.