Joseph Tohmoh Yong, Regional Inspector of Pedagogy, Ministry of Basic Education, explains why today's school children have more home work.

As a Pedagogic Inspector, have you noticed that the timetable of pupils today seems too charged with subjects and homework to carry out each day?

The question is similar to what people have been saying and what different generations have said. Generations have the tendency of saying that “our days were better” and that standards of education are falling. This is a generation issue. Today, we are in the 21st century with numerous changes. An example is the advancement of technology with the android telephones. Times are changing very fast and at a fast pace.

We need to keep running if we must catch up. It is difficult to keep going back. Things in primary schools are different from how they were 10 years ago. We must keep adapting to the changing times and the best way and place to do so is in schools (nursery, primary and secondary schools, amongst others). If we do not start implementing so much now at the basic education level, we will continue to be running behind and may never catch up.

Is it not overcapacity to implement so many studies at the primary level of education?

We must keep asking questions like what do people mean by overcrowding or overcapacity when it comes to a five or seven-year-old child. My children taught me how to download “Whatsapp” from the internet. My wife can manipulate certain options on her phone. This means that children are learning something and one cannot stop introducing ICTs in primary schools as it was the case 10 years ago. When such is introduced into the primary school curricula, it means the number of subjects increases likewise homework in the different subjects.

We are now talking bilingualism, not because Cameroon is bilingual but because at the global stage, it is English that dominates. As such, one cannot stop introducing bilingual subjects in nursery and primary schools. The end result is that the school timetable continues to grow. People keep interpreting and seeing the present day in the light of yesterday. If people must understand and accept things, they must stop seeing things in the light of their days. Times are changing and things are also changing and we must adapt each subject with the changing times.

With so much to learn and do as homework, children have little time to play. Does such a congested pedagogic programme not make pupils less effective in school?

No, not at all. When we prepare school timetables, we take into consideration the number of hours in a day. It is all about planning. The number of subjects does not affect in any way pupils’ time to play. People need to know that most of what children do, they take pleasure in doing them. We have the active learning methods, multiple intelligences and children have many talents and ways of approaching their lessons.

There are children who approach their lessons by playing and teachers are taught many ways to enable children approach their lessons. One can see children playing, reading or writing. Some children take pleasure only in writing, while others take pleasure in reading, singing, dancing or playing. All these are ways teachers are taught how to get children learn while doing one of the above. All these are things that if one does not know, he/she will think it is cumbersome to the children.