HYDERABAD: Summer vacation is the only time for children to pursue their hobbies with no school, homework, tuition and extracurricular classes. But that’s not the case anymore. Vacations are no longer fun and leisure. There’s always the nagging worry about holiday projects and homework to be completed.
Parents and students claim that the schools burden children with a long list of assignments, leaving very less free time for play and relaxation. Sometimes, the volume of holiday homework eats into the family time too.
Saniya Syed, a class 9 student of a private school, has got nearly 10 assignments. From making sentences, finding new words, writing letters, paragraphs/story to out of box work like finding names and other details of 10 trains originating from Hyderabad, Nampally or Kacheguda stations and making speed and velocity graphs of each.
“The most time-consuming assignment is making a magazine on natural disasters for which we have to draw pictures. Each of these assignments carry 10 marks so you have to do make them properly. Why give holidays if we have to work so much even during vacations,” the 14-year-old said. Though assigned to students, parents say that the burden of holiday homework falls on them, particularly if their children are young.
From surfing the internet, making scrapbooks, painting charts to writing essays and designing models, it’s all parents’ work. Taking a cue from the previous years, Anitha Reddy has decided to finish her daughter’s homework before she leaves for a vacation. “ Last year I made five scrapbooks, a couple of charts and a model too. Weekends and several evenings after work this is what I did,” she recalls. This year, however, she is relieved that there is only one chart, a dictionary and a directory of environment-related organisations to be made.
Some parents even try to tempt their children with gifts to complete their homework. Shalu Agarwal, for instance, says she promises her 8-year-old son ice creams or an additional episode of his favourite cartoon if he finishes two pages of handwriting each day. “Project work I can do, but handwriting is something I have to make him do but being in a holiday mood it gets difficult to make him sit and write,” she says.
Breaks must, say psychologists
While schools believe that children need to be kept engaged even during vacations, psychologists caution against this trend. “Older students who are in classes 9 and above get lesser holidays and continue to have tuition and preparation for different entrances and exams and no break from this is detrimental to their mental health,” said Diana Monteiro, a counselling psychologist.She says that in case of younger children, who tend to get out of habit if they do not continue to do activity continuously, it is important to keep them in touch with academics “Given the competition today, parents and schools must ensure that older children do get enough breaks,” she says.