‘Parents burning the midnight oil’ completing children’s homework
Exhausted parents are staying up until midnight completing their primary children’s homework while pupils from poorer backgrounds often cannot afford the craft materials needed, a teaching union rep has said.
Delegates at the Educational Institute of Scotland 2018 annual general meeting at the Caird Hall in Dundee said busy parents and carers, some of whom had second jobs and may also be looking after elderly parents, did not have the time to help their children complete numerous homework projects.
They also said some poor- er pupils had no internet at home to research homework projects. A motion was passed instructing the union’s council to develop guidance on devising homework tasks which minimised the impact on workload taking into account poverty, home circumstances and the emotional and mental health of learners and their families.
Carolyn Ritchie, Glasgow EIS and union council member, said “parents, teachers and pupils are tearing their hair out over homework.”
“Perhaps homework is just an excuse to push some of the work we can’t get through onto the parents? Why do we praise the few who do the homework when they aren’t even doing it themselves? Why do we buy in to that myth?”
Ms Ritchie added: “Families put up with it as they are afraid they will be judged. We need timed achievable tasks… homework time should not impinge on family time.”