Since the time schools were established, even in their most primitive form, parents, teachers and students have often debated about the importance or need of assigning homework.
Homework, from a teacher’s perspective, is given mainly to enhance creative and comprehensive skills of a student and reinforce learning. It also provides teachers with a way to monitor student’s progress that helps identify learning problems, if there are any.
However, most students consider it a burden which disrupts their routine life because studying for five or six hours at school makes them exhausted and by the time they reach home, they are sleepy as well as uninterested in studying again. But willingly or unwillingly, they feel bound to do homework which results in little or no time left for outdoor activities like meeting friends, playing, etc. In such a situation, they think homework disrupts their social activities; thus, they start developing negative feelings towards school and teachers.
Surprisingly, there are some students who are in favour of homework. To them, it provides a means to learn more about the topics covered in classroom. And when exams arrive, they are more confident because they just have to revise the topics they have already learnt as their homework.
On the other hand, parents are of the opinion that homework provides additional practice, self-discipline and sense of responsibility in children. And through homework, they judge how their child is doing in the classroom and all about his/her progress.
In my opinion, homework is essential, but it is the huge amount of homework that some schools and teachers are in the habit of giving that makes it a burden for students. Schools should make a timetable for homework too — different days should be assigned to different subjects so that homework of too many subjects is not given in a single day.
Homework should not be abolished instead it should be made interesting and teachers should avoid giving students lengthy assignments which consume a lot of time.
The homework should reflect the creativity and hard work of the student, and it should be such that they can do independently rather than needing the help of their parents/siblings or a tutor. Homework, in moderation and the right kind can be fun and of great benefit.
