Making sure the kids will be all right

It was an illustrative moment earlier this week when the Education Minister, launching the new National Homework Policy, asked primary children what they would do with their time if less of it was spent on homework. One Year 5 youngster piped up to say he would spend that extra time singing, after which he delivered a well-executed tune to those in attendance.

That episode, in a nutshell, pretty much encapsulates what the ministry is trying to achieve with its new guidelines that have drastically reduced the amount of time schoolchildren are burdened with homework: to free kids from excessive afterschool work to engage in other pursuits, whatever those may be. While the government may not have gone the whole nine yards and implemented the zero-homework policy that many educationally-successful EU states have done, it has taken a significant stride in that direction.

As from the next scholastic year, the amount of time children will be expected to be hitting the books after school hours is to be slashed considerably – to maximums of half an hour a day for primary school children, one hour for middle school children and a maximum of eight hours a week for secondary school

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The idea is to give today’s children, who are, generally speaking, already hard-pressed with busy schedules, more time to breathe, to take part in more sports, social and cultural activities; to play, spend quality time with their families and to simply rest… in short, more time to be kids.

And that is because, let’s face it, kids these days have a lot on their plates and they could very well do without the damaging sideeffects that are, according to the ministry’s research, caused by homework. These include stress, burning the midnight oil working on assignments, tiredness and lack of sleep, anxiety, and extra pressure.

Children, in normal circumstances, should have no business experiencing such problems, but extensive research and evidence on both local and international levels have shown that these are the very real effects of excessive homework.

Findings by the World Health Organisation in 2016 revealed that Maltese 11- 13- and 15year-olds are definitely feeling the strain of homework, and that they, on average, are given twice the amount of homework as their European peers.

This comes on top of other stresses they identified, including: exam stress, the need to study obligatory subjects; and having to choose subjects from as early as in Form 3. Coupled with the reduced homework time guidelines is another stress-busting initiative aimed for government schools as from next year: the elimination of mid-year exams, which will be replaced by an assessment system – giving children an extra 50 hours of classroom time. The new homework guidelines, while not eliminating homework altogether, offer a sense of balance between educational needs and the other very real needs of individual children.

Not all parents, however, agree. There are many of the opinion that what was good for them will be just as good for their children. But in many ways, these reduced homework guidelines puts the ball in the parents’ courts.

With some extra time at children’s disposal, parents are left with a number of options on how to make the best use of that time. Yes, some parents will ensure their children use that time to study more, others will spend family time with their children; some may enrol their kids in new and interesting sports, classes or activities.

But, whatever they do, that time absolutely must not simply be converted into more time before a television or computer screen. Should that be the case, the good the policy aims to achieve will have been eliminated.