When 'homework' takes center stage!

Excessive homework can create family stress, cut into family time and generate tension and tears among Nigerian children. Homework has become a tough issue for parents to deal with. 

Parents and tutors silently grumble at the thought of dealing with homework. The idea behind homework is to give the child an assignment that they could go home and try (without) having to receive active adult supervision. On the contrary, homework has become a 'google tour'. It even cuts into very late hours for some kids as parents struggle to get results. Children spend an average of 7-9hours in school on weekdays. I would expect that those hours were thoroughly used in imbibing the concept and skill that a homework checks; so why all the exhausting homework? Shouldn't homework be similar to  a pattern of checklists? By checklists, I mean a process where parents identify the progress of their child's work in the task given effortlessly. 

Parents should be allowed to spend more quality time doing other things with their children as against having to meet with the demands of a tedious homework. Who benefits from these homework? Teachers.......come on!

Excellence in education

Is the teacher a babysitter and a depository of knowledge filling children with all kinds of information? Or is the teacher a guide, facilitator and co-learner in a learning environment? Isn't teaching meant to be complemented with engaging parenting? Excellence in education will occur through modifications to the teaching and learning processes. Structural changes by education institutes go a long way too, but parental involvement is considered unrivaled. I have seen a good number of parents have huge expectations from teachers. Can there be real excellence without a close parent and teacher connection?