“Students, you must complete your science
homework by writing down all the answers to the questions in the exercises in
Chapter 2. If any of you come to school with incomplete homework tomorrow, you
will not be allowed to sit in the classroom”.
The above instructions are part of the usual
classroom practices in many traditional Pakistani schools, where teachers
pressurize their students to complete their homework within a time limit.
Homework is the task or an activity that students usually do at home. According
to Merriam-Webster, homework is "an assignment given to a student to be
completed outside the regular class period." Assigning of homework to
students has been a continuous practice in the teaching-learning process in
schools. Studies show varied impacts of homework on students' academic
performance. For instance, Harris Cooper, an educational psychologist, and his
colleagues found that homework had a strong association with students’
achievement. On the other hand, Alfie Kohn and Sara Bennett, in their book
"The Homework Myth", describe that homework time has no association
with students’ achievement.
According
to Pakistan Economic Survey, 2023-24, we have a national literacy rate of 62.8
with significant regional disparities. In Balochistan, where literacy rate is
only 52%, many parents lack understanding of the homework their children are
assigned and its impact on their achievement. Even educated parents, unless
they have a background in education, find it challenging to distinguish between
meaningful homework and mere busywork. Consequently, they place their trust in teachers
and schools; and their satisfaction comes from seeing their children busy in
homework activities at home, assuming it's contributing to their learning.
Majority of the government and private schools
follow traditional homework methods, where teachers solve exercises on the
board, students copy notes in class, and then rewrite them neatly in separate
notebooks for each subject. This tedious process is repeated daily for 7-8
subjects at upper primary level, mainly at the start of the academic year when
teachers are in a rush to outpace each other in completing the syllabus, often
at the expense of students' understanding and engagement. This unnecessary
practice leads to students carrying heavy bags (8-10 kg) filled with multiple
notebooks, making it a burdensome exercise.
When asked about the negative impact of
workload on students, a secondary-level teacher in a private school in Quetta
replied, "Our goal is to keep students busy at home." Another teacher
echoed a bit different sentiment, saying, "We're required to assign
homework (notebook completion) to students, so we can't do anything about
it." These responses suggest that teachers either lack professional training
or assigning excessive homework is a deliberate policy in their schools.
Notably, government schools, despite having trained teachers, also follow
similar conventional homework methods, perpetuating the issue.
When students are burdened with excessive
writing workload, they are forced to stay up till midnight, disrupting their
sleep patterns. Additionally, they must rely on others, such as parents,
siblings, or relatives, for assistance with completing their homework. For
students who struggle to meet deadlines, skipping school or classes may seem
like the only option. Moreover, the constant writing demands leave students
with no leisure time, leading to frustration and potentially negatively
impacting their overall well-being.
Despite being an outdated practice, notebook-writing
practices persist in our institutions as homework assignments. In the past,
when teachers were the sole source of guidance and the course books and notebooks
were the primary source of knowledge, this practice may have been acceptable,
albeit unproductive. However, in today's digital age, where information is
readily available through various sources, including AI and online resources;
and with numerous guidebooks accessible at bookstores the need for traditional
homework has diminished.
Writing practices are beneficial in early
classes, where developing children's writing skills is crucial. However, in
higher-level classes, this time-consuming work yields little benefit beyond
refining writing skills. The true purpose of homework should be to engage
students in productive activities like problem-solving, comprehension,
analytical and creative practices. Effective homework can be consolidated into
a single notebook, reducing unnecessary workload. In today's digital age, where
e-notebooks are becoming increasingly prevalent, it's counterintuitive to
encumber students with a burdensome pile of physical notebooks.
Both government and private schools need to
revamp their approach to homework. A crucial step is establishing a
coordination mechanism in schools that enables teachers to share and discuss
their homework plans, thereby reducing the burden on students. Furthermore,
schools should abandon outdated notebook-completion practices and invest in
training teachers on best practices. The Bureau of Curriculum & Extension
Centre Balochistan, in collaboration with the Provincial Institute for Teacher
Education (PITE), can develop innovative instructional guides and materials
with a specific focus on modernizing homework practices that prioritize student
learning and engagement.
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