Parents: Homework is age-inappropriate

Teachers say it’s designed to build parent-child bond

Parents of young children are annoyed at school projects being given to pre-primary students.

They say that they are the ones who end up completing the assignments because they largely involve cutting and pasting, which young children are unable to do on their own.

Teachers and psychologists say that these projects are also meant to ensure that families spend quality time together.

Pre-primary students of secondary school certificate schools have to complete projects that are worth 10 marks each.

Examples of these projects include the creation of models of birds’ nests, igloos, houses with tiled roofs, and buildings. Parents say that such assignments are extremely time-consuming.

In CBSE schools, five marks are allotted for subject enrichment at the primary school level, and evaluation systems are only implemented from Grade 6 onwards.

Mr Ravi Suvvari, a parent from Hitec City whose child studies in an SSC school, said, “It is fine if teachers assign one or two such projects every quarter. Imagine the amount of time needed to prepare three or four projects during the holidays, and the cost of materials required. Some parents even outsource the work to intermediate students; they pay them money to save their own time.”

Students are also asked to create scrapbooks and paste pictures pertaining to various topics such as birds, domestic animals, and festivals.

Ms Padmavati Divakarla, headmistress of the primary section of Hyderabad Public School, said, “With both parents working these days, they are not able to spend quality time with their kids. Teachers assign projects to pre-primary and primary students so that parents and children bond and spend more time together.”

According to psychologists, projects serve to enhance children’s skills from a young age, while also being fun ways of learning and engaging with their families. But if the projects assigned to pre-primary students are so difficult that parents have to do them on their own, then they serve no purpose. Experts caution that projects should always be age-appropriate.

In most cases, though, it is the parents who fail to make an effort to take out the time to sit down with their children and help them with their projects. Given their tight schedules, they often find it easier to complete the work by themselves.

Dr Diana Monteiro, a counselling psychologist, said, “Our education system is quite confusing for most people. Children are supposed to enjoy learning, and the assignment of projects is one way to do so. However, the number of projects assigned and the expected standard of work needs to be monitored. This means that the younger the child, the simpler the work should be. Young children are often assigned colouring, drawing, and painting tasks as projects, as these tasks are age-appropriate.”