The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has recommended that schools replace the word ‘homework’ with terms such as ‘practice work’ and ‘self work’. But this attempt to erase homework from the lexicon of our education system may not be a cosmetic change.
Solving puzzles, writing letters, putting together household lists, cooking, reading newspapers and watching documentaries and natural history programmes: that is what the board wants upper primary students from Classes 6 to 8 to do after school.
In a recently published manual, it urged teachers and heads of schools to club these activities with concepts from lessons. The manual — posted on the CBSE website — has a set of guidelines detailing how ‘practice work’ can be made interesting, and ways to incorporate different activities to enhance a child’s learning curve.
To enhance their mathematical skills, for example, the Board suggests that children can help parents plan the monthly household budget. Or, they can represent clothes in their wardrobe via pictographs.
The manual, which runs to 318 pages, says that schools can conduct discussions on the kind of after-school work students would like to do, and also design and structure the study load into easily manageable modules. It recommends that students make extensive use of newspapers and watch news channels. For social sciences, for instance, students can design a case study on a controversial law and discuss the solutions.
