Lessons learnt

I DOUBT even Job could hold it together in my house when it comes to supervising homework.

Rare is the day that it ends without someone losing the cool.

I envy the Chinese, who like to offload homework duty to tutors. An estimated 80% of Chinese parents engage tutors for their children, either on a regular basis, or before big exams.

On the face of it, such enthusiasm appears to pay off. Shanghai and Hong Kong regularly top global assessments of children’s abilities in reading, science and maths.

So how do we as a nation fare? Is homework a chore or an opportunity for constructive involvement? If our children’s performance is related to our level of engagement, then we appear to be doing quite well. Results of international comparative assessments place Irish pupils well above average, 10th out of 45 countries when it comes to reading, and 17th out of 50 in maths.

Dr Eemer Eivers, research fellow at the Educational Research Centre (ERC) in Drumcondra, who was involved in these international studies, says Irish parents are actually very good at setting time aside for homework.

“In terms of comparing us to countries like China, we’re quite good,” Dr Eivers says. “One of the reasons the Chinese bring in tutors is because they are not doing homework with the kids themselves.

“It is definitely better for a parent to help rather than to farm the tutoring out. It helps with the parent/child relationship, it leads to good communication and it helps keep tabs on how your child is getting on,” says Dr Eivers.

She points out that the focus needs to be on more than achieving top points.

“If they are constantly being tutored in how to get the maximum out of exams, then they don’t have time to think for themselves and they don’t develop the kind of rounded perspective that employers look for. Good people skills are the kind of attributes accumulated through free play,” Dr Eivers says.

She also challenges China’s winning performance in international studies, pointing out that China itself is not ranked. Instead, statistics released by the Chinese government relate to cities or regions — such as Hong Kong and Shanghai — where communities are more affluent and academic results more favourable.

Enda McGorman, school principal at Mary Mother of Hope NS, Clonee, Dublin, says they are constantly trying to get the message across to parents not to underestimate the role they can play in engendering a positive attitude towards homework in their children.

“If you think about it, no-one sits their child down on their knee to teach them the words for setting the table. Yet they have all those words when they come to school. If we have that amount of influence on our pre-schoolers, think how vital our continued support is.”

It’s also important that parents recognise that children might find subjects difficult and to show understanding in this respect.

And don’t focus too much on the written stuff. Never take the attitude, “ ‘Ah, it’s only reading homework’,” McGorman says.

Listening to your child reading is one of the most important things a parent can do, McGorman says.

It gives the child self-confidence, it improves competency — the more they read, the more assimilated learning takes place.

So is homework worth the effort? “It’s a big ask at a time when most households are very busy. But from the perspective of both a school principal and a parent, my experience is that it really does give kids the opportunity to re-inforce what they are learning in school — as long as the amount of homework they are getting is appropriate to their age.”