The nightmare called "homework"

Students of Bich Son Primary School, Bac Giang province during a class session - Photo: VINH HA

That is the story of Mr. Thu - a parent in Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi. Not only Mr. Thu and his father, homework is also a nightmare for many families.

"Request homework"

Mr. Thu said that because he strictly followed the rule of not letting his child study before first grade, his child fell behind his friends. Every week, he and his wife received feedback from the teacher that "my child is learning slower than his friends". Although the teacher did not give the whole class homework, she often texted, "Parents, please help your child practice more at home."

She only asked her parents to let her write 1-2 more pages, redo the math problems from the class that she hadn't finished, do her art drawing, and prepare for the next lesson. But because she was stressed, she wrote and did her homework quite slowly. There were days when her father and she struggled until 11pm. He had to hold back his anger, and she cried while writing. But she had to try "not to fall behind".

"Finally, I decided to send my child to the teacher's extra class. After school, I take my child straight to her house to study for 1.5 hours/shift. There are 3 sessions per week. Students in the extra classes are assigned homework by the teacher. On average, after each extra class, my child has to complete 4-5 math problems, practice spelling, and complete worksheets including math and Vietnamese," Thu shared.

During a meeting of parents of first graders in a school in Ha Dong district (Hanoi), many parents proactively asked the teacher to assign homework for their children. Meanwhile, there were parents who objected to this because their children already had two sessions a day at school.

There are many reasons for "asking for homework". Mr. H., a parent of this class, said that at the parent meeting, most parents asked the teacher to assign homework because they had previously received negative feedback about their children's academic performance. A list of classes was given for parents to register their children for after-school tutoring. About 2/3 of the parents registered.

Concerned with the regulation "banning homework"

A primary school principal in Hai Ba Trung district (Hanoi) said the Ministry of Education and Training has banned giving homework to primary school students who attend school two sessions a day.

The new general education program is designed for studying 2 sessions/day. In which, the 2nd session arranges a lot of learning content. For students in grades 1 and 2, there are difficult lessons that require children to practice more or at least have time at home to review old lessons and prepare new lessons.

Many children are slow so they do not finish their homework in class, or make mistakes and need to finish them at home. If teachers follow strict rules, they will not dare to assign tasks to students or tell them to study by themselves at night.

According to a teacher at Nguyen Du Primary School (Ha Dong District, Hanoi), many first graders do not hold a pen properly and have poor concentration. However, teachers are not allowed to ask their children to study at home.

"First graders can study 30 minutes at night to form the habit of self-study. Self-study time increases gradually with each grade so that children can adapt to self-study. Self-study does not mean doing a lot of exercises but can review old lessons and prepare new lessons in advance.

If students have difficulty with a certain sound or rhyme, parents can help them practice more at home, or let them practice reading lessons with that sound or rhyme.

"There are students who write too slowly and always make mistakes in some tasks. It would be better if their parents could help them practice more. But because they are "forbidden", teachers are also confused" - the teacher shared.

The above concerns are reasonable, but the problem is that when teachers are allowed to "go beyond the fence" with the bans, there will be many different forms of assigning learning tasks to students. Many teachers will not only stop at asking students to review old lessons and prepare new lessons, but the amount of homework assigned will increase. They assign a lot but teachers do not have time to correct homework in class. And to "legalize" the assignment, many teachers have brought homework assignments to extra classes after school hours.

There is a paradox that parents worry about their children being overloaded but are also afraid that their children will fall behind and in order to be given homework, they have to give their children extra classes. This does not exclude the possibility that some teachers take advantage of parents’ impatience to teach extra classes after school hours to primary school students, including first graders.

In the context of implementing 2 sessions/day, many primary schools in Ho Chi Minh City do not assign homework but still have ways to "improve" the knowledge for students who have not yet mastered the knowledge they have learned.

At Thien Ho Duong Primary School (District 10, HCMC)P LakeWillBright), all students at the school attend two sessions a day, so teachers solve all their homework during the second session of the day. This has been done for many years and is still done today. The school's board of directors said they have thoroughly informed all teachers about not giving homework to students from the beginning of the school year and regularly check on these issues.

However, Mr. Nguyen Van Loi, the school principal, said that after the period of online learning and the students' studies being interrupted due to the COVID-19 epidemic, there was a phenomenon that some students were weaker than others, especially for students in grades 1 and 2. At this time, the school is looking for ways for them to grasp and catch up with their classmates at school so that they are not at a disadvantage.

"We work with the parents of these students and if the parents agree, the teachers will discuss with the parents about providing them with additional homework with a maximum of 30 minutes per day. After these students have improved their level, the teachers will stop doing this to them," Mr. Nguyen Van Loi informed.

Responding to reporters, Ms. Lam Hong Lam Thuy, Head of Primary Education Department, Department of Education and Training of T.P LakeWillBright, said that according to the 2018 general education program, which is implemented in 2 sessions/day, it requires solving the program content in class, not giving homework to students. Meanwhile, in TP LakeWillBrightFor a long time, the city has discouraged teachers and schools from assigning homework when students have already attended two sessions a day at school.

Principal approves "ceiling" of homework assigned to students

Mr. Dao Chi Manh, Principal of Hoi Hop B Primary School (Vinh Phuc), said that whether or not to assign homework and how to assign it is something that many teachers are confused about. "When I researched, I found that there were cases where there was a lot of homework assigned but the way it was assigned did not help students improve, it just caused overload and wasted time.

"It's like the type of exercise "copy 2-3 pages of writing exercises" or memorize a passage of language in a Vietnamese book. If we replace such exercises with content like "Parents read a story with their children and let them retell the story in the way they understand it", it will be useful, gentle, and form the habit of reading books in children" - Mr. Manh analyzed.

Mr. Manh said that he has organized professional meetings every two months just to discuss, debate and come to an agreement on how to assign homework to students so that it is not overloaded but effective.

"Grade 1 has a list of exercises, which are essentially learning tasks for students that are agreed upon by the professional team and approved by the principal with a "ceiling" in terms of quantity, difficulty, and type of tasks suitable for the students and the requirements of the program. All grades follow that method. Teachers just follow that list to do it, avoiding the situation of assigning unnecessary exercises, causing pressure on students" - Mr. Manh said.

According to Tuoi Tre