Holiday homework has always been a burden for many students. But the battle to eliminate (or reduce) it now seems to involve families too: 4 in 10 parents are against it. According to a recent survey conducted by Skuola.netconducted on a sample of a thousand middle and high school students, more than 8 out of 10 students consider that the summer workload is excessive, with 23% even considering it unachievable. Mathematics and Italian appear to be the most “demanding” subjects, with Mathematics proving to be the most constant opponent for 38% of respondents, followed by Italian subjects and readings for 23%. Only 24% think that homework is proportionate to the available vacation days. The majority of students (41%) have completed less than half of their homework, while 40% have not yet started it or have done very little of it. It is not only students who are complaining. In fact, 40% of parents also share this discontent: 12% are totally opposed to summer homework, while 27% would only accept it to a limited extent.
Extra homework during the holidays
This situation is aggravated by the growing habit of teachers assigning tasks even after schools have closed, through the use of electronic registers, emails and classroom chats. About six out of ten students received homework even after the holidays began, and a third received it once the holidays had started. “Homework for the summer holidays is becoming a tradition that is less and less tolerated, by students – you know what's new – but also by their parents: many families now perceive this homework not as an opportunity for cultural growth for their children but as a
punishment that falls on them,” comments Daniele Grassucci, head of Skuola.net, about the data. “Because in the end, the workload is such that it is the parents who have to take on the burden of filial tutoring themselves. And – he concludes – the increasingly widespread practice of assigning homework to schools that have already finished via the electronic register certainly does not contribute positively to this feeling.
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