But guess what, my school always had a way of following me to torment my life every where I go. The whole pain about mid term assignments wasn’t doing the assignment at home. It was me having to copy about 4-5 assignments from the board for every single subject then going back home to answer all the questions and then when I got an answer wrong after school has resumed, I’d have to write correction again for marking. In those moments, I really wished I didn’t even attend school anymore.
Education has grown to become an integral part of our lives today as individuals. From childhood till now, I’ve passed through the educational system and so I have seen the good and the bad in it all. If there’s one thing that bothers both parents and children here in Ghana, it’s the number of assignments kids have to bring back home after a long a day at school. We usually think kids don’t get exhausted because they don’t have to work. All they have to do is to go to school, study, eat, play and come back home. But we forget that they also burn energy in doing all these things. Funny enough, these kids get even more tired than we the adults if you ask me.
Growing up, after every school day, I went back home with at least 5 assignments. On good days, it was 2-3. I honestly didn’t like assignments from the word go. But once I get home, my mom would make sure I finish them before even going to play or do other stuff. On some days, I never finished cos I had to write and write until I slept off. Sometimes my mom would even do the work for me. When I got to the higher classes, I got more serious and started doing my assignments diligently. But on days I didn’t know the answers to the questions, I’d either leave my book at home or go to school very early to copy from others.
The main goal of giving assignments is to help students revise what they learnt at school when they go back home. But it got to a time I wasn’t seeing the impact of homework in my life because it became a liability to me. Today, it’s even worse. My junior sister came home with some maths homework about a year ago and even as someone with a degree ,it took me about an hour to grasp the whole concept. So I asked myself, what are they teaching these kids?
Homework is good, but it should be given in moderation. Out of sight they say is out of mind. Some kids don’t even learn when they go home from school. The only time they get to learn is through homework. So, I wouldn’t say homework should be abolished from the schooling system but rather, I’d suggest it’s given to kids in moderation. One or two assignments should do for kids and even on some days, they should be given breaks. They also have their whole lives out there aside from school. Let’s not burden these kids. Let’s let them be kids!
All images belong to me.