Wrong shade of red? Malaysian child, 7, given fewer marks for colouring choice

A Malaysian mother was stunned when her seven-year-old child was penalised over the shade of the colour pencil used for a school worksheet.

Sharing her disbelief and frustration in a Facebook post on Tuesday (June 16), she posted a picture of the exercise paper, which showed five marks were deducted from the total score although all questions were answered correctly.

As part of a science lesson, students were instructed to colour non-living objects in red and living objects in yellow.

The marks were deducted for using a shade of red that appeared closer to maroon or dark red instead of bright red, the teacher purportedly said in a WhatsApp message to the parent.

The mother took issue with the marking, pointing out that the assignment was not on whether students used the exact shade of bright red.

"I apologise, teacher. I understand that the shade may be a little dark and appears more maroon than bright red," appealed the mother.

"However, this is a Standard One Science subject, and the main focus is on classifying living and non-living things."

She also pointed out that her child had correctly identified all living and non-living things without a single mistake in the written answers below the drawing.

However, the teacher rejected her appeal and responded that the decision was justified as it was meant to serve as a lesson "so your child would pay closer attention to instructions".

The educator also said: "As far as I know, your child is the only one who got the colour wrong."

The teacher also offered to remark the worksheet if the parent insisted on it.

In response, the mother stressed that "maroon is still a shade of red" and argued that parents should not be required to buy premium colour pencil sets merely to satisfy a teacher's preference for a specific shade.

"I hope this doesn’t happen again and that schools will assess students more fairly based on their understanding and mastery of concepts, rather than small differences in colour shades."

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helmy.saat@asiaone.com