Teachers spending too much time marking, Gibb suggests

Teachers in England are spending too much time marking and giving detailed feedback on pupils’ homework, according to Schools Minister Nick Gibb.

Gibb made the comments while speaking to the Education Committee, where he told MPs that marking in different coloured pens and giving feedback on exercise books had never been a government or an Ofsted requirement.

His comments follow a recent OECD report which found that teachers in England worked longer than the OECD average, with many working as long as 60 hours per week when marking and additional administrative tasks were taken into account.

Gibb said the notion of feedback on the face of exercise books ‘came from somewhere in the ether’ and said that teachers were not required to undertake this so called ‘deep marking’ for every piece of work.

Instead, the Schools Minister suggested that work could be marked with a simple grade, which is in line with the practice of their overseas colleagues and could help to elevate the workload pressures affecting the profession.