With Dashain at our doorsteps, a lot of people have started planning their vacation. People in urban areas are busy devising plans for recreation. This comes as no surprise as Dashain is usually the most awaited vacation for people in Nepal to travel and meet their family and friends. However, this article is least concerned about how people celebrate this holiday. It rather discusses another subject that most of us never talk about seriously: homework that is assigned to school students during this festival, ie, Dashain homework.

This write-up invites its readers to reflect on the question whether Dashain homework should be assigned to school children at all. Dashain, a festival all kids look forward to, is a time for recreation. It provides opportunities for the family members to spend quality time together. This is of significance especially when both parents and children are busy throughout the year. The family members get time to repair and renew their relationships. So, what happens if we load our students with busy work?

Busy for nothing

Usually, homework is meant to help pupils review at home what they have been discussing in their classrooms. Harris Cooper, an educationist from the US, asserts that if the homework is creative, it can improve students’ performance at schools.  Research studies also show that that if students, between grade six to 12 do their assignments regularly at least for two hours a day, they are likely to perform better at schools. Furthermore, according to studies, if homework is given as a real extension of the class and is well thought out, it makes a significant difference to the learning process of the pupil.

But, in schools in Nepal, homework is rather given as an afterthought to the class. In many cases students are assigned busy work instead of homework with clear objectives. Research has found that such pointless busy work does not have an impact on the students’ school performance.

Apparently, Dashain homework, and in many cases regular homework too, is rather mundane. Most of it does not involve any imagination and is a mere replication of what is written in the text books, the internet or other sources. That is the reason we need to ask if we really need to assign busy work to students during Dashain.

No learning effect

To add to the woes, we often assign work which children cannot do on their own; too often, they seek help from parents, family members, friends, tuition teachers or the internet. As such work is not likely to help their learning, we cannot continue arguing in favour of  giving homework to our students. If a student cannot do the homework on her own and if it does not involve any creativity, there is no learning.

Sometimes, it is argued that thoughtful homework involves thinking, creativity and diligence on the part of students, and that such tasks provide for a good learning experience. But, a customary homework as assigned in many classrooms around the globe cannot spark any curiosity in students. 

So, homework should combine what students learnt in the classroom and what they will learn next. Alas, many teachers and school administrators seem to have failed to realise this fact. Hence, homework seems to have lost its academic utility and has been rather counterproductive.

Moreover, assignments can support learning if proper feedback is given. Teachers should be able to read through the work of the students and give them useful suggestions so that the students become aware of their mistakes and learn from them. But, according to my experience and observation, teachers do not have time to read through the tasks. Usually, what happens is that the notebooks are either randomly ticked or are stacked in a corner. So, why assign tasks that we cannot manage to go through?

Be creative

However, I do not completely refute the idea of giving homework. It is because assignments help maintain a connection between home and school, which is important during long vacations. But such tasks should  involve critical thinking and creativity. Yet, school administrators need to intervene and ensure that students are not loaded with busy work but are given homework that is useful, academically appropriate and interesting.

All teachers along with the administrators could sit together to plan the homework they would like to assign to students. They could discuss and agree upon homework that asks for creativity in the pupils.

Furthermore, the assigned work has to call for critical thinking, and get students explore and involved in new learning experiences while also requiring them to apply the skills they have learnt at school.

Still, it should be understood that too many creative tasks do not make people creative.

Laudari is a lecturer at Ace Institute of Management