Students demand compensation for homework; A different take on Land Acquisition Bill

The school is in turmoil, the management is at wits end to even begin to understand how to deal with the situation. The problem has never been faced by any school, ever.

It began when the children wanted some basic, democratic, inclusive rules to be applied to the concept of the homework.

Their demands were simple and straight forward.

  •  Homework can be given but before doing so, the concerned teacher must prove that the homework is being given on the issue of high academic importance. The teacher would need to make a presentation to the class who would take a final call on this issue.
  • Homework should be suitably compensated by providing play time during school hours. This would be equal to four times the home work time in Metros and two times in other towns & villages.
  • The homework should be given with the consent of students. Not less than 80% of the students need to be agreeable to the homework. This agreement will be teacher specific.
  • There needs to be a Social Impact Audit done for homework of each subject. This should be made mandatory in case of Maths, Science and English. The Social Audit would be done by a committee appointed by students and would include their friends from the locality & on the facebook. The results of this impact audit would be binding on the teacher.
  • If a student finds it difficult to complete the homework within the allotted time, the homework for entire class would stand cancelled for the day. If it happens twice in a month, the teacher who gave the homework would forfeit his / her right to give homework for the remaining session.
Expectedly, the school did not accept most of the demands and students began a protest.

The issue became complicated when the several businessmen, especially those selling prepaid airtime, data packs, game CDs etc. joined the protest stating that excessive homework given to students was affecting their livelihood.

Invoking the freedom to live and do business of their choice, the shopkeepers demanded a total ban on homework and wanted state to make laws fixing and revising upwards, the minimum pocket money for each student. The MSPM (Minimum Student Pocket Money) should only be based on the WPI index and not linked to the income of the parents, they demanded. The students, obviously, were elated with both the demands.

All and sundry have joined the agitation now. The politicians who claim to fame is instant gratification if it gets them votes, the non governmental organizations who spell the word ‘responsibility’ as ‘rights’ and ‘rules’ as ‘atrocity’ have pitched in with their respective agendas.

As students sit on the protest, parents are getting worried for their future, school is readying itself for the situation where it has to choose between what is required & right and what is expedient & doable, educationists are having doubts about the need of homework, or even the need for education.

And in the middle of this someone is asking, “If the students don’t study, how would they even read the labels on the game CDs?”

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