As schools come up with ‘innovative’ projects in the name of homework, shopping for project-makers is slowly becoming an alarming trend among city parents. Several schools alleged that parents not only prefer completing their child’s homework, but often outsource school projects to ‘professional project makers’.
While schools say parents are at fault, parents in turn blame schools for assigning ‘difficult’ and ‘age-inappropriate’ homework and projects to children, which they are unable to finish themselves.
Principals and academics pointed out that homework and projects are aimed at making students think more creatively and the purpose is defeated when parents end up doing the same.
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“I feel that homework shouldn’t be given at all as we cannot control what students are doing at home; they can copy or get it done by their parents. We should rather inculcate reading and writing habits or make students do their projects and homework in the school itself, or make it a little easier. For example, we can tell students to click pictures when they go on vacation or write about their experience on doing a project. These projects are marked and hence parents either do it for their child or get it outsourced. I haven’t come across any such thing in our school, but have heard about this emerging trend, which will hamper the creativity of children,” said Father Bosco D’Mello principal of Don Bosco High School, Matunga.
Swati Popat Vats, president of Early Childhood Association and president of Podar Education Network, alleged that parents get the project work and homework outsourced from professionals, who charge money for the same.
“I have come across parents in our own school who outsource projects. We try to explain the ills of such practices to these parents. Most parents often send their children to coaching classes and then complain to us that while their wards are able to write in those (coaching) classes, their school notebooks are empty. They even go to the extent of telling us that the class teacher is not good enough. The actual issue is that children get tired writing in a coaching class, that’s where they get overburdened. I will not blame schools for giving challenging homework to the students as it is their task to make students think. If students do not understand, teachers are supposed to explain it to them,” said Vats.
She also claimed that there are teachers in areas such as Worli, Dadar and Lokhandwala who are also such ‘project-makers’. “These teachers charge anything between Rs 1000 to Rs 10,000 or more, depending on how elaborate the parents want their children’s project to be,” said Vats.
Parents, however, pin the blame on schools for ‘overburdening’ students. “Last year, my daughter couldn’t complete her work on time. The school asked her to complete the work in just two days which is unfair to a 10-year-old. My husband had to take two days off from work to complete the assignments and also explain the same to my daughter,” Garima Prasad, parent of a class VI student.
Mayur Dedhia, a chartered accountant by profession and parent of a seven-year-old boy claimed that he and his wife take turns to complete their son Aarav’s homework. “My son studies in Class II. We have to turn to Google as there are many questions asked by the school to which we do not know the answers – especially in science and general knowledge assignments. His homework includes questions on seven wonders of the world, countries and their capitals. These are questions a class II students cannot answer easily. We have to complete the project for him.”
Asmita Bhatia, whose child studies in Class VIII of a suburban school, said, “These days, very little explaining is done in the classroom. Teachers underline paragraphs in textbooks and ask children to find answers to questions from that paragraph or read it. My kid once asked me a sentence in Hindi, ‘Taru neeche gir pada (taru fell down)’. For almost three hours, I thought that taru must be the name of a girl. Later, I found out on an online translator that taru means tree. Teachers just don’t explain the chapters to the students, leading to doubts and confusion in the students’ minds.”
Meanwhile, many schools are conducting workshops and special PTA meetings to discuss this issue with parents. “At Kangaroo Kids and Billabong schools, we do not call it homework, we call it home extensions. The concept in most schools about homework is that whatever classwork remains pending, it is given as homework to the students. It does not not support in academic and creative growth of the student at all. We always discuss these issues with our parents and discourage practices where parents complete the child’s homework,” said Linah Asher, chairperson and founder of Kangaroo Kids Ltd.
dipti.singh@expressindia.com
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