Making models of the solar system, writing essays on literary personalities and solving algebra problems… these tasks given to students as homework often end up as tasks their moms and dads complete.

A questionnaire by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), issued online recently, attempted to get a feedback from parents, teachers, principals and students on the meaning of the exercise of homework. It has revived the old debate on whether homework is doomed to be a burdensome and monotonous activity or if there is a way of reinventing it.

“While we cannot interfere with an individual school’s homework policy, we want to ensure that innovative methods of homework can be replicated in other schools as well,” said Chairman of CBSE, Vineet Joshi. The board is in the process of analysing the answers they have received.

Opinion on homework, of course, continues to be divided. Fr. Shaju Varghese, Principal, Christ School, said parents are the ones who insist on homework so that the child is “engaged” after school hours. “However, we give almost no homework till class 4. The reasoning capacity of the child develops only after class 5, and they can cope with it,” he said. Acknowledging that the burden gets passed on to the parents sometimes, Fr. Varghese said parents’ involvement in the activity is crucial.

“The onus of ensuring that the child learns through homework is on the parents. Young children need assistance, but that does not mean that parents do all the work without involving the child,” he said.

Parents and students on the other hand feel that homework adds to their workload, in the absence of innovation. Students say that the homework often tends to be a repetition of what is taught in class. They also say that different subject teachers allot different homework, without co-ordinating, which adds to a big burden.

Priya R., a parent of a class 8 student, said homework lacked innovation and involved mere “cut, copy, paste” task from the internet.

Downloading

“Students are asked to collect information on personalities, or a particular subject. With so much of workload, all my child ends up doing is downloading information from the internet, without processing it. But not once has the teacher objected to this. There needs to be more thought while assigning homework,” she said.

K. John Vijay Sagar, Associate Professor, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), said that homework needs to be age appropriate and based on the development level of the child.

“As there is no uniform regulation on homework, teachers should ensure that it does not overburden the child. Most children do homework out of fear, only to ensure that they are not punished,” he said.

‘Just one hour’

He said homework should only reinforce the learning in the classroom and should engage the child for a maximum of an hour every day. He also said that the amount of homework given needs to be assessed so that it does not cut into their recreation time.