The head of the school says he based his decision on studies released, showing giving homework to pupils has a negative effect on their self-confidence.
The private school’s principal, Gareth Dry, said the brain needed time to process information and to put everything children have learned into context.
Now pupils at the Riverview Preparatory School, just outside Mbombela, will no longer have to do homework.
“Children need to play,” Dry told a local newspaper
“And by play I do not mean sitting in front of a television, X-Box or iPad – I mean climbing trees, playing in the pool, kicking a ball around, playing imaginary games with friends, rough-housing with mom and dad,” he said.
Pupils will only now revise or study for tests at home and the scrapping of homework will decrease depression on the child to allow them to always be happy and not keep stressing about homework, which sometimes the parents do not understand and end up confusing the child.
Dry said in a country called Finland in Europe they had one of the poorest academic achievement and in other cases culminating in dropouts and “and issues such as teen suicide”.
“The happiness, health and well-being of the child are central to this system. It encourages pupils to be self-starters and to show determination, firmness of character, perseverance and passion.
“It is, therefore, hardly surprising that one of the first things they did, was to scrap homework,” Dry said.
(edited by MLM)
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