Homework gets an F

Are children drowning in homework?

This is a debate that has divided parents, teachers and education experts here and abroad.

International research points to homework having little or no benefit in enhancing learning or performance, with UK teachers even calling for homework to be scrapped for children in primary school.

In South Africa, there has been little research on the matter, but a snap survey by The Times on social media yesterday had parents divided.

The Department of Basic Education does not have a formal policy on how much or what homework should be given so schools are left to devise their own approach.

There was no general consensus among parents who responded to the question "Should primary school children get homework or should they be free to be kids after school?"

Most agreed that the volume of homework for primary school pupils was "excessive".

Mother Angela Aranes said: "Kids must practise their maths, that goes without saying. But the amount of homework and projects is crazy. It gets extremely stressful for both the pupil and parent."

She said schools did not take into account the distances children travelled or other extramural activities and household chores.

Several parents decried being "project managers" of their children's work and of homework eating into their quality time with their offspring.

But education expert Jonathan Jansen said homework could reinforce learning.

"Like all good things homework can be abused, and too much work, or meaningless, repetitive work serves no purpose at all," he said.

"Homework can be an instrument for enriching classroom learning, connecting class learning to domestic lives, and providing opportunities for practice to children who struggle with the limited time available for instruction in a school day."

Leigh McPhail, who has three children in primary school, said homework trained children in good habits they would need later.

"Parents who feel that their children have little time should cut out some extramural activities during the week to create more time for homework," McPhail said.

Jaylin Bowles, the principal of Mondeor Primary School, Johannesburg said homework taught children self-discipline and prepared them for future self-study.

In the US, many parents are opting out of homework, citing negative impacts ranging from a loss of quality family time or play time to stress-induced headaches, anxiety and even ulcers in youngsters. One primary school in the US and another in Canada did away with homework this year.

In the UK, though homework is not compulsory, guidelines for schools say five-year-olds should do homework from the first day of school for an hour a week, increasing this to between 90 and 150 minutes a day by the age of 16. Teachers have called for homework to be abolished for primary school children.

Local educational psychologist, Anel Annandale wrote on her blog: "The general rule of thumb is to add 10 minutes of homework for each grade. Thus a Grade 1 child shouldn't do more than 10 minutes of homework a day, while a Grade 12 pupil should do a maximum of two hours of homework a day. Studies show that if pupils go past this prescribed maximum they get burnt out and their achievement goes down."

A parent who did not want to be named said his son in Grade 2 spent up to two hours a day doing homework.

"It is unreasonable for a seven-year-old to be expected to concentrate on school at school and at home," he said.

For the head of the University of Johannesburg Centre for Education Practice Research, professor Elizabeth Henning, the answer lies in drawing marginalised communities into schools rather than schools invading home life with too much homework.

"In its extreme form, homework can be counter-productive . it is irrelevant when it is just an uninteresting repetition of what was already done in school.

"It is relevant when children go home and explore, even if it is around the house - not be managed by parents who end up doing the investigations," Henning said.

The Department of Basic Education did not respond to queries before publication.