The letters that have been published in your newspaper with regard to the amount of homework that was given to some students during the Christmas holidays made some interesting reading.

I agree with those parents who believe that holidays should be just that – holidays. I do understand that some schools think that children should be doing something during their free time, but this should be a coordinated effort. If all teachers had to give lots of homework for children to do during the holidays, then as some parents pointed out, children would end up spending hours on end doing their homework when they should be spending some free time with their family.

One other thing that was not mentioned in the letters is the amount of holidays that children have.

I have made a rough calculation of the amount of days that students will be spending at school this scholastic year – and found out that the total is around 150 days. Probably the amount is less considering that there are schools which seem to invent every possible excuse to give extra “holidays” – sometimes it’s because of a seminar for the teachers, at other times it’s because of founder’s day; even parents’ days amount to holidays since some schools do not allow parents to take children with them for parents’ days.

Is 150 days of schoolwork enough for our students to learn as much as they should? Considering all this, it is a surprise that the number of people willing to become teachers is not double what it is now. Who wouldn’t want to work just 150 days a year, when the rest of the working population is working 222 days every year?

Michael Mifsud

Birkirkara