Hyderabad: Teachers hail 'experiential learning'; parents have reservations

Hyderabad: No homework up to class two is among the recommendations made in the New Education Policy-2020 that regulates the amount of homework given to students of all ages.

Teachers felt that the time that could be saved to utilise important life skills to children and encourage 'experiential learning' which will allow students to grasp concepts faster with a potential to replace longer hours of studies. However, parents of students said that instead of eliminating it completely, homework should be given in a controlled manner avoiding burden on them.

As per the suggestions made by the Education ministry, the policy talks in detail about homework for students at various levels, commencing with no homework for children up to class 2, and maximum two hours of homework every day for children in classes 9 to 12.

It emphasises on encouraging children of classes 1 and 2 to speak about how they spent their evening at home, the games they played, the food they ate. and essay writing, articles on contemporary issues for classes 6 to 8.

Speaking to The Hans India, Suchi Srivastav, a primary class-cum-music teacher at Sadhu Vaswani International School, said, "in my opinion it is a good strategy to shift the focus of the students out of four walls of books and exposing them to a practical world, their community and their friends."

There should be oral homework assigned for students to get them revised on what they've learnt in school and lessen the burden of parents and engage with their kids in various activities, she(who also has a young kid) added. She felt that schools should adapt subject integration to teach students with the help of music and other methods to make them grasp the concepts faster.

The parents feel that instead of completely eradicating homework for students till class 2, qualitative work should be given. "It's a good move by the government to relax students. However, ruling out the whole concept of homework does not make sense, as kids will have ample time and indulge in watching TV, gadgets, which they already are. Therefore, homework should be given to engage them with a meaningful work." Said S Preeti, whose son studies in class 2 in a ICSE school in Medchal.

Another parent, D Keerthan, whose said that it has positive and negative impact--positive because it gives more time for children to study without any pressure. The negative connotation to it is that homework keeps children disciplined and enables a routine. It should be regulated in a both quantitative and qualitative manner.

"The Education ministry should have mentioned the amount of homework that can be given in a week per class instead of time." says, A Joshi, a maths teacher of a government school.

On the one hand, other teachers appreciated the move from the government. On the other hand, they felt that burden might fall on teachers making the evaluation process tedious, especially to test students on subjective questions.