Red pen mark could harm students: Expert | Education

Gabrielle Dunlevy | 4th December 2008

TEACHERS have been advised that marking students' work in red pen could harm their mental health.

A kit to help teachers address mental health wellbeing in the classroom offers a list of tips devised by experts.

One tip says: "Don't mark in a red pen (which can be seen as aggressive) - use a different colour."

The kit, tabled in Queensland's parliament on Wednesday by Deputy Opposition Leader Mark McArdle, sparked a row between the government and opposition over education priorities.

"Given your 10-year-old Labor government presides over the lowest numeracy and literacy standards of any state in Australia, don't you think it's time we focused on classroom outcomes rather than these kooky, loony, loopy, lefty policies?" Mr McArdle asked Premier Anna Bligh in parliament.

Ms Bligh said the question was trivial at a time of economic crisis.

"Thousands of Queensland retirees for example are seeing their superannuation earnings go through the floor, and the opposition wants to speak about the colour of pens that teachers are using in the classroom," Ms Bligh said.

Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg said there was nothing wrong with teachers using a red pen.

"How crazy is this government?" he told reporters.

But Health Minister Stephen Robertson, whose department devised the kit, said youth suicide was such a serious issue.

"If mental health professionals determine that as one of a number of strategies teachers should consider, then I'll support them every day of the week," he told reporters.

"This is not a matter for ridicule, this is serious."

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