Click to play videoKolkata: Thirty four per cent primary school students depend on private tuitions in West Bengal. And if findings of Pratichi India Trust in Kolkata are to be believed, 78 per cent of parents who sent their kids to free primary schools and Sishu Shiksha Kendras in rural Bengal feel private tuitions are unavoidable. Nobel laureate Amartya Sen heading the Trust holds the practice of burdening students with excess homework responsible for this phenomenon.
"There should be no rule for homework to complete basic education on the part of school children at their elementary level when they are very young,” Founder of Pratichi (India) Trust Amartya Sen says.
Comparing the current findings with the Trust's first report seven years ago, Sen argues that the prevailing system – expecting students to complete part of their curricula at home – has perpetuated backwardness among weaker classes.
Sen also opines that the worst affected are parents who are incapable of teaching their children personally.
"When they lack that, we instead of removing inequality through education perpetuate inequality through education,” says Sen.
Although, the report has identified several lacunae in the primary education system, it has recorded significant improvements in the performance as well as coverage of primary education since the first report.
It also reminds policy makers that there still remain defects and infelicities that must be overcome. But the big message it sends out is to do away with homework.
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