BUREAUCRATIC MARKING POLICIES ADD NOTHING TO PUPILS’ PROGRESS

BUREAUCRATIC MARKING POLICIES ADD NOTHING TO PUPILS’ PROGRESS

Representatives at the Annual Conference of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union in the UK, today condemned the continuing imposition in too many schools of overly bureaucratic and workload-intensive marking policies, which undermine teachers’ professionalism, add to their already excessive workload and do nothing to enhance teaching and learning.

Teachers continue to report that overly prescriptive marking policies are being imposed which specify not only how work should be marked, but even the colour of the pens to be used.

Marking and assessment policies were cited by over three quarters (76%) of teachers in the NASUWT’s annual Big Question survey as the biggest generator of excessive workload in their school.

Chris Keates, NASUWT General Secretary, said:

“Too many schools are continuing to impose marking regimes which pupils and teachers find unproductive and debilitating.

“Teachers are being subjected to policies which dictate when to mark, how to mark and even the colours of the pens to be used.

“They deprofessionalise teachers, add no value for pupils and are often dreamt up by those who have lost touch with the day-to-day realities of the classroom and who focus more on monitoring teachers than on the progress of pupils.

“So serious is the issue that the NASUWT has issued a specific action instruction to members to empower them to reassert their professionalism, reject these unacceptable policies and mark and assess in the way they believe will benefit the children and young people they teach.”