Some schools ditch extra studies

PRIMARY Schools are ditching the policy of homework, and it has become a global trend.

But leading education expert Professor Kobus Maree has warned that until systematic research has been conducted on the matter, it will be impossible to generalise on the basis on a few anecdotal studies.

“Ideally, at primary school level, learners should be given time to complete their daily ‘ homework’ while still at school.”

However, he added, it seems that learners will have to complete what they could not finish at school at home in the afternoon.

“I believe we should move away from using the word ‘homework’. This word refers to work that relates to homebased activities. We may perhaps wish to call it school work completed at home after school.

“Mathematics will always be with us, in addition to using avant-garde strategies to promote the teaching and learning of that subject. In addition, studying for examinations at home will be with us for the foreseeable future. I cannot foresee, for example, students completing all their schoolwork related activities at university or school.”

He urged schools looking to dive into the no-homework policy to plan projects carefully and spell out methodological aspects meticulously.

“Write up and submit your findings in manuscript format to scholarly journals for evaluation so the merits or demerits of such a practice can be established ‘objectively’ and debated in a professional manner by peers.”

Sun Valley Primary School principal Gavin Keller, who implemented the no- homework policy three years ago after a trip to America, said he encourages his colleagues to try no-homework at their schools.

He said he had met with a “fascinated” MEC for Education, Debbie Schafer, who was curious about the decision, and had no problems.

“Internationally schools in Finland and the USA are moving towards understanding that schooling isn’t about marks anymore and that homework breaks down the desire to learn.”

Schafer’s spokesperson, Bronagh Hammond, said while the department continues to investigate ways to implement the curriculum assessment policy statements ( Caps), it has noted the benefits of Sun Valley Primary’s no-homework policy.

She warned that while the department has witnessed the benefits of the policy, “it would not necessarily work at other schools, which have a different style of teaching”.

The policy had been a success because Sun Valley Primary is “very teacher development oriented”.

Hammond said the school had the expertise in-house to develop teaching skills, which other schools do not have.

“While the stated curriculum provides the framework for teaching, it is the responsibility of the school and therefore teachers to plan in grade and phase context the appropriate homework needed to support the learner, but also allow enough time for them to be kids.”