In many countries, children are given a lot of homework

IELTS Writing Task 2 with sample answer.

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

In many countries, children are given a lot of homework. Some people feel that if children are given less homework, then they will face less stress and can also develop extra skills.

What is your opinion about this?

Write at least 250 words.


Sample Answer:
Amount of homework and the pressure the school kids face nowadays are two great concerns for many, especially for the parents. Many people say that increased numbers of homework are effective as this keeps the children focused on education and schools while other oppose this and argue that this trend creates an immense pressure in children’s  psychology and hinder any creativity they might have. In my opinion, a balanced condition could be effective where homework itself should be creative.

Student life is the time to learn and enhance knowledge and as part of school education teachers give homework to the students. This homework is proven to be part of effective learning as almost all of the schools use it. The students are given homework to make sure they are studying and practicing at home. The parents carefully monitor the progress of their children and mostly homework and teachers’ grading are two tools for them for the monitoring. Homework often tests the students understanding level of a lesson taught by the teacher. Many teachers even use the performance of the homework as a criterion to grade a student at the end of the term. From this perspective homework is a good tool to enhance the performance of the students.

However, it is not uncommon that the amounts of homework given to the students become burden for many students. They can hardly manage time to concentrate on other important things. This is sometimes so time consuming that parents have to get involved to finish the homework of a student. This definitely has a bad impact on students. Firstly, the pressure of homework would create a negative psychological effect on children and they would start disliking the whole concept of school and education. Teaching should be fun and the homework should not be a way to finish the prescribed syllabus. Teachers should try to finish the lessons and tests on the classroom and give some homework that requires creativity and few hours to finish. This would encourage the students to have more interest on schools, homework and education. Homework like free writing, drawing, small scientific projects, internet browsing for information could be good way to let the students explore more and learn more. Thus the students would feel an enthusiasm about their study and would get opportunity to flourish their hidden creativity.

In conclusion, homework is a proven method to keep students engaged in education but too much academic tasks at home should be changed in a way where homework would be fun, entertaining, thought-provoking and educational. This would ensure a better balance among the creativity and education for children.