Quite recently, and arising out of a random series of brief conversations with eighteen children attending secondary schools in Georgetown and its environs, across grades ranging from seven to nine about the frequency with which they are given homework, we received a ‘not frequently’ response from fourteen of them. When we sought to determine with greater precision just what ‘not frequently’ should be taken to mean we were told in different ways by the various students that it meant that across a full school term they receive between five and seven homework assignments. Three of them told us, however, that for this term, so far, they had received no more than four homework assignments. We learnt as well that even if homework assignments were given and completed, there were instances in which teachers did not require that the completed work be submitted for evaluation and marking. As a consequence, more than half of our respondents conceded that they sometimes do not bother themselves to do homework since, (unlike what used to be the case years ago) there are no consequences for not so doing.
We hasten, of course, to add, that the discoveries which our very random and less than scientific survey yielded may well not apply at all to other schools that may be more serious about homework. This, however, in no way negates what ought to be a substantive concern about the overall strength of the Ministry of Education’s homework policy. Incidentally, more than half of our respondents were drawn from schools in the capital that are regarded as being among ‘the top secondary schools’ in the country.
Two further points should be made here. The manner in which we approached our interviews ensured the elimination of collusion in the children’s responses. Secondly, the answers were sufficiently instinctive and candid as to persuade us beyond reasonable doubt that the children were being open and honest with us on the homework issue.
Our research on the matter of a possible Ministry of Education policy on homework took us no further than a brief document titled Homework Tips for Kids which addresses with conspicuous brevity issues like the need for parents to ask teachers about their “homework policies” (should this be interpreted to mean that different teachers have different homework policies), the creation of “a homework-friendly area” in the home, the scheduling of “regular study time” at home, the creation of carefully designed home management regimes for the completion of homework, the minimization of distractions (here, television and computer games probably lead the way) and seeking “outside help” to get homework done if such help is not available inside the home.
The Ministry of Education would, we expect, agree that what are at best suggestions/recommendations are insufficient to supplant a policy that is not just driven by compulsoriness but is also attended by penalties for delinquents, be these children or teachers themselves. Both schools and parents should be required to ‘sign on’ to mutually agreed homework rules and the Head of each school should be required to enforce those rules rigidly.
While we are unsure of the existence or otherwise of a policy than goes beyond the ‘notes’ to which we alluded earlier, the information we received from our respondents would definitely appear to point to a certain level of absence of firm application of across-the-board homework policies in our schools. This should not be allowed to stand.
An examination of the importance of homework points, in the first instance, to the need for Heads of schools as well as teachers to benefit from specialized training/orientation in the matter of homework and the particular role that it plays as a facet of teaching and learning. If it is not already happening teachers in training should be specifically instructed in the matter of homework and its role in the overall process of education delivery.
One of the more common purposes of homework is to allow students to practice/go over material earlier presented in class in order to reinforce understanding in particular areas. Homework helps, as well, with preparation for material that will be presented in future lessons. Homework assignments aim to help students obtain the maximum benefit when the new material is covered in class. Homework serves, as well, to create connections between parents and children. In fact, homework is frequently the only facility that links parents to their children’s school experiences, though we hasten to add that disparities in education levels and curriculum changes, over time, serve, frequently, to inhibit the ability of parents to help children with their homework.
Other societal changes, too, have thrown up ‘pushbacks’ against homework. Perhaps the least valid of these has been the argument that children ‘do enough’ during the school day. There are, however, other more mundane and, these days, perhaps more surprising ones…like the workloads of teachers, the ‘other obligations’ (like attending University,) which cannot be justifiably tendered as excuses for not assigning homework.
The seeming indifference in some schools to the creation of a strong oversight mechanism (which we believe is the responsibility of the Head Teacher) when added to the compelling ‘options’ to homework afforded by late-night computer games and television have, it seems, combined to offer one of the stronger contemporary pushbacks against homework and (again in the absence of robust empirical evidence) the sober discourses that we have had with handfuls of children and teachers (primarily in Georgetown) lead us to believe that we are ‘missing a trick’ as far as the creation and, more importantly, the rigid implementation of a strong homework policy for the nation’s schools is concerned.
The Ministry of Education is not in the habit of responding with alacrity to education-related recommendations commonly thrown up by the media. It might, however, be inclined in this instance to probe the worthwhileness of the issues arising out of what is not more than a casual probe driven by a genuine concern.