Bringing It All Back Home

BY EUROPEAN standards, Irish school children are expected to spend long hours on homework. Between, school and homework, many second level students in this country are working up to 70 hours each week.

Given that nowadays students often have to travel long distances to school - sometimes leaving home at 7 a.m. and returning late in the evening - never before have young people spent so much of their lives involved in school related activities, with so little time for sport, recreation or other forms of work.

Yet despite the long hours and the hardships involved, parents remain largely in favour of homework. The pressures of the system are such that parents fear that their children will be losing out if they fail to complete large amounts of homework, every evening. This is particularly the case as certificate -- exams approach, and "homework" means long periods of revision as well as completing set assignments.

"Occasionally parents of younger children complain that they are given too much homework, but after fourth year homework is expected," says Nick Killian, PRO of the National Parents Council - Post Primary.

At second level, schools recommend that students spend up to an hour and a half on homework each evening in first year, up to two hours in second year, and three hours in third year; for students studying for the Leaving Certificate, the expectation rises to at least four hours each evening at study.

According to schools, while some children do less than the requisite amounts of study, many youngsters do a lot more - working up to five hours each evening and putting in seven hour days at weekends.

Even at primary level, homework has become the norm. Starting in first class, six year olds can expect to spend up to 20 minutes on homework each evening, while older children spend up to 40 minutes at study each night.

"We hear a variety of parental worries," says Fionnuala Kilfeather, chairperson of the National Parents Council Primary. "Some parents fear that their children are getting too much or too little homework; others are concerned that the work isn't corrected."

Like most parents, educators agree that homework plays an important educational role. "The key purpose of homework is the consolidation of material covered in class, to give students a sense of mastery," says Dr John Coolahan, professor of education at St Patrick's College, Maynooth.

In some instances teachers may use homework to stretch and challenge students, but requiring students to read ahead is poor pedagogical practice, he says. Homework also, he adds, allows teachers to check how thoroughly lessons have been absorbed by students.

Max Cannon, principal of Ballycragh National School, Co Dublin, sees homework as a good discipline for older primary school children, which prepares them for the rigours of second level. "Short amounts are good self discipline. Homework should be a predicated activity that is part of the structure of the home," he says.

However, Cannon warns that too much homework - and homework that is beyond the child's competence - can be distressing, and that teachers must take account of family circumstances that may make completing homework impossible.

At second level, homework can usually be broken down into three segments - written work, oral work and revision. Many educators fear that students opt to spend their time at the written work, which will be marked by the teacher, and overlook the equally important oral and revision work.

"You can't retain something unless you revise what you have been taught," says Sister June Fennelly, principal of St Angela's School, Ursuline Convent, Waterford. "You have to sit down and make it your own - that is the heart of study. You need to go over the subject on the night, revise it in a week's time and look at it again in a month."

EVEN BRIGHT children who have understood what they have been taught in class need to revise their work at night to fix it in deep memory, teachers say.

However, many educators argue that the time spent in study is less important than the quality of the study. "Study skills should be taught in fifth and sixth class in primary school," says Pat O'Connor, principal of St Enda's Community School Limerick where study skills, are taught in first year.

"All teachers should explain ho their subjects should be studied. Homework is focused on fact, but we should be teaching people how to read and analyse information."

In the past, schools were criticised for their arbitrary attitudes towards homework, which was randomly assigned. Nowadays, schools are far more organised, but efforts to institute homework rotas among different subject teachers have been, largely abandoned. "They don't work," a principal claims. "When you have children of mixed ability you can't have a blanket approach to homework. Teachers need the flexibility to give homework at particular points in the course, rather, than because it's their turn."

John Coolahan stresses that homework should never be just an afterthought. "We warn teachers that they need to put as much planning into homework as they do into lessons. It must always serve a purpose. And it should never be given in the last minute scramble after the bell has rung," he says.

However, students testify that a minority of teachers are guilty of giving last minute, hasty homework instructions. "It's always the same few teachers who are scrabbling through the books looking for questions after the bell has gone and we're packing up," says one 16 year old boy.

Homework overload may be kept to a (relative) minimum by students themselves. Many schools actively encourage students, through their class reps, to notify teachers if they feel they have more homework than they can cope with.

EDUCATORS ARE adamant that unmarked homework is a waste of time. If teachers expect their charges to put effort into homework, they themselves should be prepared to put the same effort into marking.

But marking copies is an onerous burden nowadays, when school and class sizes are far larger than in the past. "One Leaving Cert English essay takes up to 15 minutes to mark - a teacher could have 30 such essays to mark and homework from other classes," a principal says. If teachers were to take home all the copies to be marked every day, many of them would be taking home 200 copies."

Some parents criticise teachers for simply ticking a homework exercise, without drawing attention to the obvious mistakes it contains. "We are far more circumspect about the use of the red pen, nowadays," one teacher explains. "We try to build on the positive and avoid highlighting the negative. A page full of red marks can totally depress and inhibit a student. It's not as simple as it looks."

Although educators agree that homework is beneficial, many people are concerned that some Irish students spend too much time in study. " The students who do well are the ones who study most, but pure academic ability is not enough," says Brian Cannon, principal of Malahide Community School, Dublin. "You need a balanced approach and social and psychological development are also important."

The syllabuses are too long, Cannon says. He would prefer shorter ones in which active learning plays a greater role. "Irish students are too passive they are spoon fed and they lose out at third level."

Another principal echoes his concern that young people in their most active teenage years are expected to spend such long hours in study. "It is completely wrong to expect 16 and 17 year old boys who are going through the maelstrom of adolescent change to sit for five hours a day in school and then go home and spend a further five hours in concentrated study."

Dr Andrew Burke, lecturer at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, argues for a longer school year to lighten the nightly homework load. The fact that the Irish school year is up to five weeks shorter than those in other European countries means more pressure is put on both teachers and students, he says.

However, many would argue that, in the long run, the problem of too much homework - much of it self imposed by students - will only disappear when pressure on third level places eases and the points race becomes a thing of the past.