Hyderabad: Students indeed share a bittersweet relationship with homework. When it comes to completing assignments on time, an overwhelming 62 per cent students were observed to submit on time while the rest stated they used excuses for not completing their assignments.
More than 2,000 students from Hyderabad participated in an online study where the various excuses for not completing homework were analysed — the latest excuse was found to be “technical difficulties.”
A Kendriya Vidyalaya teacher Mr V. Sohan Babu explained, “Homework is a revision of what is done in school. It inculcates intuitive behaviour in the child to learn more. What we mostly find, however, is that children do not have a learning atmosphere at home as a result of which, homework is largely perceived as a burden.”
He said technical glitches have become a popular excuse among students to explain the non-completion of their homework.
“Most students blame it on the alleged lack of internet access at home, even though textbooks contain all the material required to complete assignments,” he said.
Other common excuses used by students to explain the non-completion of their assignments were found to be emergencies, injuries, and lack of time, while some creative students listed excuses like “spilt coffee and ruined it”, “laptop failure”, “dog ate it”, “lost to the wind”, and last but not the least ridiculous, “lost in a fire”. An international school faculty member Ms Tejaswi C. explained, “With technology available for use even at the primary level, it is found that even parents have become dependent on machines for the completion of homework. Hence, the latest excuse is in sync with the times. Most students are now used to watching videos online to understand the concepts that they might not have understood fully during class. We have to make space for the internet as a resource that our students benefit from.”
While there is an urgent need to make homework more engaging, students said that if learning is made fun and not so stressful, then they would wholeheartedly embrace every assignment given to them, according to the study.
The one-size-fits-all approach used by the education department proves that not all students are in sync with one learning tool and therefore, different methods must be used for those who frequently come up with excuses. By and large, the phenomenon of homework is found to be burdensome, and an innovative approach is required to make it engaging for students.
