Homework is the name given to the task given tp the school children to be done at home. The purpose of giving this task is all very sane but; the shape this sanity has taken by now is almost verging on the fringes of insanity.

Let us analyse the whole system of this homework. Why is it given? Homework is given to children in order to keep them abreast with all they have studied in class during the day.

Together with this another valid purpose of homework is to make the children do some work on their own without the help of their classmates and the spoon-feeding of their teachers so much so good but, as is true with most of our objectives we always overdo and in this maze of overdoing we almost always lose the very objective.

I say this because, as things stand today, when children come home from school, more than half of the working hours of the day are over, and they are absolutely exhausted. Besides, do we expect them to leave eating lunch, rest and their hobbies all for their homework? We surely don’t and should not but, the fact of the matter is that do we expect them to sacrifice all this on the alter of homework? Above all, homework is also not given just in one subject, which could be expected to be done in a little time.

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Instead, they get loads of homework for which they need the whole evening to complete. It appears as though teachers at the school end are always competing in giving homework. This task being enormous is considered more as a punishment to the children than being a boost to their knowledge.

The result of all this is rather confusing and alarming. We all know that the load of homework cannot be done easily without the children sacrificing all theirs, which they are not ready to do and neither is it possible so. However, since the homework is mandatory, they have to do it, they ask their parents or their tutors to do it for them. When the child does not do his homework himself, I’m sure we cannot expect him to have gained anything at all from the system of homework.

Instead of bringing the subject up to date for the children, homework has become just a daily ritual to avoid a scolding at school. Similarly, the teachers also at the school end correct the homework just as a routine ritual, without ever caring to know whether it has been done by them or not. Thus in the process, the child has not added to his knowledge or capacity which the homework is originally meant for. The work load is completely taken over by the parents or the tutors.

With this fate of the homework given with such alacrity I feel there is no advantage to the child. It could be more advisable to give homework but just a little bit, may be in one or two subjects only.

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This may infuse interest in the child to do it as, it will not take away all his time at home, and, even after doing it will be left with ample time to follow his other choices of work and play. It would not be a load and time consuming so; it may encourage him to do it. For this system to be streamlined, the teachers in school would have to plan which subject would be dealt with on which days of the week.

Besides this, when the work is less the child will do it himself and learn in the process of doing his homework. On the teacher’s part also it will be nice if he/she would insist that the homework be done by the child. If this is done, and the homework decreased to one subject a day, children would be left with ample time to play and meet their peer group in their neighbourhood.

I feel that homework is a must but that it should be less as, the child has already had a heavy dose of studies in his school hours. If it is little, the child will not feel it as a burden and neither will the elders opt to help him out.

This is done because the child and the elders all know that he will not be able to do all the homework himself, in such a way that he is left with time to play also. If the work is less, he will be able to finish the work and then enjoy the evening as he may like to. If this is done in homework then hopefully it would enhance the child’s interest in doing it and that also himself. By so doing the purpose of making him does work independently will also be achieved?