The Ministry of Human Resource Development issued an instruction on November 26, 2018, for scrapping homework system for Classes 1 and 2 and also no subject-division for Classes 3 to 5, to be implemented in all states and union territories of the country.
It was reported that since the students who pass out from Class 5th and get promoted towards Class 6th, the subject division of physics, chemistry, biology, geography, civics, and History will cause immense trouble, commenting on that Manit Jain, the co-founder of the Heritage Group of Schools said “Progressive education systems around the globe are moving to a less boxed-up approach to education. While we have grown up in a system where subject boundaries were not to be meddled with, we do need to recognize that more holistic content provides more real context for learning.”
He asserts that if students are aware of the concepts and learn required skills “the fuss over the content or the instruments for delivery is unnecessary.”
“What we need is a scientific temperament, the spirit of inquiry, the ability to look at multiple perspectives, to collaborate and to build an argument amongst other skills,” he says.
Similar to that Beas Dev Ralhan, CEO & Co-founder of Next Education says “Education is not about cramming information. That’s the first thing we need to understand and work out policies and pedagogies accordingly. The directive from HRD ministry to all states about reducing the weight of school bags and eliminating homework seems to have been issued with such an understanding,” Ralhan says.
“All children have the right to a happy and carefree childhood which paves the way for more meaningful and productive adulthood. Hence, we can expect students to indulge more in sports, inculcate hobbies or simply play. These have many far-reaching benefits that many can’t see right away,” Ralhan adds.
He also adds “Research states that kids need more sleep than adults. Homework has been robbing children of their sleep. Relieving students of homework will allow them to get sufficient sleep.”
Manjit Singh continues to promote and explain the education pattern in the Heritage Group of Schools saying “We decided to focus on a more humane, real and learner-centric curriculum and pedagogy. We have adopted project-based learning methods, with multi-disciplinary themes where students work with real-life experiences and become the leaders of their own learning,” says Jain.
“As a result, children construct their own knowledge rather than being fed limited content through prescribed textbooks,” he adds.
If these orders, issued by MHRD are followed, the tables will turn for primary education.
“We need a serious shift, in terms of more small-group work, peer learning and individual study time. All of these promote self-directed learning and a sense of responsibility,” says Jain.
He adds that the pattern exercised in the classrooms of ‘sage-on-the-stage’ should be removed and ‘guide-by-the-side’ model should be introduced where teachers are not afraid to accept they don’t know something rather than delivering false information.
“We need a serious shift, in terms of more small-group work, peer learning and individual study time. All of these promote self-directed learning and a sense of responsibility,” says Jain.
“As structures change, students will be able to work on their own pace and teachers will not feel pressured to teach the same material at the same time to all kids. This should create enough time for classwork that should make homework redundant,” he adds.
He informs that Heritage Schools exercise ‘no homework’ policy, which has been proved unsuccessful among the junior classes.
“Instead, they engage in concrete hands-on experiences in the form of experiential units. Subjects such as the sciences, humanities, social sciences, art, literature, poetry and music all come together as integrated units and are taught with the help of class activities, stories, and practical experiences,” says Jain.
“Children go through at least 40 such concrete experiences/units in the junior school years. Each experience’s duration is anywhere between four to six weeks,” he explains.
Beas Dev Ralhan believes that the new kind of learning will enhance learning techniques, which delivers important skills that books can never do.
This will expose students to 21st-century ways of learning while breaking away from traditional approaches. Besides enhancing their skills, this will also truly make them future-ready in a way that cramming course material and information cannot,” he says.
For this order to be implemented accordingly, teachers need to buckle up and adopt the new pattern, for which they have not been trained, and there is no provision for these kinds of training for the teachers.
According to the co-founder of Heritage Group of Schools – “Can the BEd content if delivered in its true spirit with adequate opportunities for internship empower teachers? The answer is yes. Is it happening? Absolutely not.”
He recognizes colleges offering B.Ed program as “with the exception of a few, most colleges are more examination centers than institutions to empower teaching and learning.”
“This is what makes it critical to focus on ongoing professional development. The government is taking steps for creating online content and repositories of resources for teacher development, but this is still going to take time,” he says.
“Yet, if a teacher is truly self-driven, there is enough open source content available to empower oneself. However, it would be great if we respond systemically and at the school level,” Jain adds.
Speaking of the heavyweight students are instructed to carry Jain adds “The stress caused to young minds as a result of this physical burden often translates into children viewing the entire exercise of learning as burdensome. Rather than perceiving learning as a valuable gift, they may start perceiving it more as a duty.”
“As a result, our students in the primary and middle years do not have any textbooks and are only required to carry an absolute minimum number of exercise books and worksheets so that the weight of their bags remains low,” Jain speaks about the process at HXLS schools, adding that senior students are given lockers to store their books.
“Education is meant to liberate minds, but when it literally becomes a burden, it can have an adverse effect. A heavy school bag could easily do that, with students perceiving subjects, classwork, and homework as a burden,” Ralhan says, “We certainly don’t want that. They should have fun while learning.”