PAIA manual
Our manual under section 51 of the Promotion of Access to Information Act, 2 of 2000, read with POPIA. Published free of charge, as the Act requires. Last updated 22 August 2026.
How do I request access to a record held by Marking.ai?
Make your request on Form 2 of the PAIA Regulations, available from the Information Regulator and from us, and send it to privacy@marking.ai. The request must identify the record and the requester, specify the form of access, and - for a request to a private body - identify the right you seek to exercise or protect and why the record is required for it. We respond within 30 days, extendable by a further 30 in the circumstances PAIA allows. Where access is refused we give reasons and explain your right to complain to the Information Regulator or apply to a court.
Who we are
Marking.ai (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2024/023842/07, a private company incorporated in South Africa, at Unit 60, 32 Witney Street, Bryanston, Sandton, Gauteng, 2191, South Africa. Head of the private body and Information Officer: Jamie Rood. Deputy Information Officer: Jonathan Kingwill. Telephone +44 204 572 8510. Email for PAIA and POPIA requests: privacy@marking.ai.
The Information Regulator
Requests, complaints and appeals may be directed to the Information Regulator (South Africa), JD House, 27 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2001 - enquiries@inforegulator.org.za, PAIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, POPIAComplaints@inforegulator.org.za, inforegulator.org.za. The Regulator has published a guide on how to use PAIA, available in each official language on its website.
Records we hold
For the purposes of PAIA we hold, among others: company and statutory records; financial records; employment records; customer and commercial records including school site licences, order forms and data processing addenda; the operational records of the Marking.ai service; technical and product records; marketing records; and data protection records including this manual, our privacy policy, our sub-processor register and our impact assessments.
Listing a category does not mean its records are automatically available: access is subject to the grounds of refusal in PAIA and to our obligations to third parties. In particular, for student records we act as an operator on behalf of the school, which is the responsible party and holds the educational record; a request for those records should ordinarily go to the school, and we will refer it and assist.
Requests under POPIA
Separately from PAIA, a data subject may request access to, or correction or deletion of, the personal information we hold about them, and may object to processing or to direct marketing, using the relevant POPIA forms. Send requests to privacy@marking.ai; we respond within 30 days and may verify identity first.
Fees and availability
The request and access fees prescribed under PAIA apply, except that a personal requester seeking their own information pays no request fee; we notify the access fee before providing access. This manual is available on this page free of charge, at our principal place of business for inspection, and from the Information Regulator.
Assessment terms explained
Plain-English definitions of the vocabulary used on this page.
- AI markingAI marking is the use of artificial intelligence to assess student work against defined criteria - a mark scheme or a teacher's own marking guidelines - and to draft marks and feedback for a teacher to review.
- Assessment for learningAssessment for learning is the practice of using evidence of what students currently understand to decide what to teach next, and to help students see what they need to do to improve.
- Assessment objectivesAssessment objectives are the categories of skill a qualification tests - commonly labelled AO1, AO2 and AO3 - each carrying a defined share of the available marks.
- Comparative judgementComparative judgement is an assessment method in which markers repeatedly choose the better of two pieces of work, and those paired decisions are combined statistically into a rank order.
- Criterion-referenced assessmentCriterion-referenced assessment judges work against defined standards of what a student should know or be able to do, rather than against how other students performed.
- ExemplarAn exemplar is a piece of work - often a real student answer - presented with its marks and commentary to show what a particular standard looks like in practice.
Questions about how we handle school work?
The security pages set out what we hold, where it is processed and who else touches it. If you cannot find an answer there, a person will reply.
