This week the Ministry for Education launched a new National Homework Policy. Homework surfaces quite often on the national agenda, for the right or wrong reasons. Some parents complain that they are taking too much time to help their children in their homework. Some educators question the validity of homework in an AI world. Others expect that homework is stopped and is shifted instead to schoolwork.

Perhaps the most recent controversial debate on homework was during the general election campaign in the weeks before 26 March 2022. This was caused by the electoral manifesto of the Labour Party, which included a proposal that indicated a pledge to scrap homework completely. Eventually, following meetings with the MUT during the electoral campaign, once in government, the proposal was re-defined as a move towards rethinking of homework.  The new homework policy was presented as the conclusion of the said rethinking process carried out in the past four years.

At a glance the 67-page policy document in Maltese and English is based on three pillars. The first pillar is about "Empowering the Learner" by describing the learner as an active agent. The second pillar is about "Enabling the Educator" by positioning the educator as the leader and designer of meaningful learning. The third pillar is about "Engaging the Family" by reaffirming the family as the learning partner. Each pillar has three well-defined measures with short, medium and long-term actions. The policy, presented as a framework, includes also a monitoring and evaluation section for its implementation.

I will not delve into the policy process and its measures to avoid being too technical, but I will try to give a perspective to homework, which may eventually help in shaping the direction on homework through the same policy. Although many of us are very much conversant on homework, not all of us have experienced homework recently. Some may speak about the homework that they had in their childhood, which may have been decades ago. Some generalise about homework based on the particular experience with their children, in a particular school, and with a particular teacher. 

Some may have their agendas, like the love for sports or extracurricular activities and consider that homework hinders students' participation in activities.  Some parents may feel helpless in trying to assist their children during homework owing to new computation methods in maths, pronunciation tools in languages, or the use of unfamiliar and emergent technologies. Other parents genuinely do not have the time to sit down with their children during homework owing to work and life commitments.  For these, homework may be seen as a nuisance and a frustration for the whole family as it hinders quality time with children.

Educators may look at homework from a different perspective, although they cannot be considered homogenous in their views. Their perspective is also evolving. Educators have always been aware that the homework produced by students may have been carried out by adults, or maybe adults were involved at some stage in its production. For this reason, educators never rely on homework as the tool to measure student attainment. Maybe some students have the privilege of a parent or a sibling who are knowledgeable about the subject, leading to better homework. Other students may not even have an adult with them at home after school hours so there may not be any help whatsoever during homework.  

This scenario has changed. Students have a companion who is not only an expert in all subjects but who is with them all the time: Artificial Intelligence. This companion speaks their languages and can easily carry out most of the tasks which are part of their homework. Educators know well that students are using AI for their home assignments. Homework in an AI era takes a different meaning and surely requires rethinking. No educator wants to spend hours correcting an essay, computations or other tasks carried out by AI instead of students. No parent wants to see a mark or grade next to students' homework which refers to AI work rather than student performance. Hence a change in homework is not only required but it is inevitable.

A change in homework needs also to be considered in relation to assessment. We are already experiencing a shift in assessment whereby communication and speaking skills are given increased value in comparison to writing. This shift is inevitable. Languages in general are becoming more important again, also beyond Maltese and English. Spoken communication is not prominent in schools and most students do not know how to express themselves orally, let alone how to present work for assessment purposes.  For years, the educational system has devalued oral communication and it is ironic that the same digital machine that channelled us towards written communication, is forcing us away from it to be able to regain the ownership of our thoughts, our work, their validity and our credibility.   

Marco Bonnici, President of the Malta Union of Teachers