Homework: Educationist Accuses Private Schools Of Exploiting Parents  

An educationist with background in child psychology, Prof. A. M Maisamari, of the University of Abuja, has accused proprietors of private schools of prioritising money above educating children. 

Maisamari, who spoke in an interview with THE WHISTLER, claimed that some private schools exploit parents by giving pupils excessive homework and pushing some of them into truancy. 

He said homework is designed as “work that has started in the class, could not be finished, and it is given with an extra for the child to finish.”

The educationist explained that teachers are not supposed to give pupils homework on topics they have not taught, while expecting parents to guide such pupils at home. 

“The homework is not given because you want to help the child to learn new things, but it is another way to make more money for the teachers,” the professor alleges. 

According to him, homework is supposed to “either keep the child busy, holding him/her from engaging in behaviours that may not be acceptable, or to give the child more practice on what was taught for proper mastering.”

However he said that homework is being abused by teachers who abdicate their responsibilities and push them on their pupils, thereby burdening parents with additional responsibility. 

He said the practice is not favourable for working class parents who work in cities like Abuja or Lagos in view of all the stress they go through daily.

Maisamari said the frustration of coming home late to do children’s assignments, forces some parents to engage private teachers at home to assist in doing the homework, describing it as another form of exploitation.

He said,” I think that’s where parents are annoyed, you’ve turned them to be the teachers while they have paid.   

“In fact some (teachers) have even turned it into business, and I can accuse the private schools for that, because they are the ones having private teachers. You pay school fees, they say pay extra lessons, and the extra lessons go for individual teachers.

“In some schools, it’s so organised that you pull all the resources of the extra lessons in one point, and then there’s also the headmaster for extra lessons who now begins to share among the teachers that take extra lessons. That is the business!”

He questioned the rationale behind asking for school fees and then demanding money for “extra lessons” from parent, stressing that lesson fee is a minimum of N10,000 with the school making it mandatory for pupils to pay.  

“You have a class of 40 children, all the 40 children will pay for that extra lesson, why do you have to close the school at 1pm only to say that those for extra lessons should stay back for another one hour? Or you close at 2pm and stay for an extra lesson for one hour? Why? That’s a business! So, the essence has been defeated,” he said.

Excess Homework And Its Psychological Effect On Pupils 

The educationist also said too much homework can have grave effect on the learning abilities of children. Speaking further, he said,  

 “The child left home tired and came to school. Woke up in the morning not properly refreshed, goes to school very heavy, reluctant, the child’s ability to assimilate reduces. So, what we think we are going to gain, we are losing! That’s the truth. 

“Nobody is against homework, but it must not be misused or must not be abused. What we are saying is that definitely, when you over burden the child with assignment or homework, you’re indirectly killing his motivation to love school and love schooling.  

“They begin to hate school. They begin to see school as a place of torture; they begin to play truancy. That’s why some of them wake up in the morning and say ’Mummy I’m having headache I can’t go to school today’, but immediately you the parents leave the house, the child goes to play football because his idea was to avoid going to school. “

He explained that the child might find the assignment too difficult, or was so afraid that his teacher will beat him.  

He said a situation where children’s homework had to be done by their seniors or parents at home is unhelpful, asking “so, who are you teaching? Is it the student or the mother? So, the child you’re supposed to teach has not benefited. He couldn’t even read, he couldn’t even write, it was the mother or the senior sister or brother that did the writing!”

Solutions: 

Professor Maisamari suggested that proprietors of private schools must be aware of what their teachers are doing, saying most proprietors may not know “lesson fees paid to the individual teachers to tutor on some so-called important subjects.”

Making further suggestions, he said, “I call on the proprietors of such schools to check those abuses. If you think your children have the capacity to remain in school till 3pm, it should be part of their school assignment and not to select some.

“Do you know the rule is that science teachers compel science students to register for lessons. They make sure that if you don’t attend extra lessons you don’t pass the exams. I don’t know how they do it, but most likely what they teach during extra lessons are the only things they set during examinations. So, parents are eager that my child should not fail, they just have to register even if it is not easy for them to pay for that extra lesson.”

Private School Proprietors React 

The National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS), FCT Chapter, said it has no power to sanction private schools guilty of exploiting parents through homework and extra lessons, stressing that parents have the choice to change school and look for where the conditions are more favourable to their children.

Ruth Agboola, chairperson of the FCT chapter, said: “These are private schools, you cannot sanction them. It depends on their agreement with parents during PTA meetings. The parents have a right to take their children to other schools where the conditions are more relaxed.”

She also denied knowledge of private schools organising after school lessons for pupils, saying: “I’m not  aware of this. I don’t operate it.”

She however advised  parents to always table their grievances to the school owners whenever they’re bothered about any issue.

She explained that pupils are only expected to go back home with just one homework for a day, adding that no homework should be given during weekends as children should be “allowed to enjoy the weekends with their parents.” 

One of the proprietors of schools that charge money for extra lessons, Philip Emmanuel of Kentford Accademy, Abuja,  said the school charges three thousand Naira for the extra lesson, adding that parents are not forced to enroll their children for it.

Justifying the exercise, he said: “We have after school lessons for just 1:30 minutes. The essence of the lesson is to work on those students that are actually not too bright in the school during the normal school period; we do extra work with them to ensure that they cope with the academics in the school.”