Dashain is already at our doorstep and the festival vibe has taken over the city. Many people have started packing to partake in the festival merriment at their native birthplace. However, the vibe isn’t equally awesome for everyone. Some cannot spend their festival as they wished. The students are most likely to go home with an extra burden of festival assignments.
Students sit for exams before Dashain vacation. As soon as they’re done with the exams, they’re bombarded with homework. Some institutes stay shut until Tihar while others open after Dashain. But even after the conclusion of the exams, their holiday isn’t actually a real holiday. The reason is Dashain homework. Dashain holiday is a 50-50 feeling for them. Happy for them that the holiday is starting, and unhappy too as they need to complete the bundle of assignments. Due to the mandatory assignments, the festival isn’t an actual festival for the students. Though they get holidays, they cannot have all the festival fun because of the assignments pressure.
The assignments pressure is even more rigid to the students who travel to outer districts to celebrate the festival. Nabin Neupane, who is studying in grade XII at Uniglobe College shared his pressure. He said, “Assignments have always been useful to me, whether they are daily assignments or practice sets. However, the works given by the college during vacation creates pressure if I go out of the valley for Dashain celebration.” He further said that he couldn’t complete his assignments as expected because of the pressure.
Flying Kites during Dashain
Likewise, some students don’t like to get distracted. They leave the homework aside and travel to make their festival worth remembering. Due to that fact, they normally start their assignments when holidays end. Samip Pant (name changed) is a +2 student at Global College of Management. According to Pant, the homework in college is way more than normal. “Their intention of giving assignment is for our betterment but I don’t find any meaning of giving homework abnormally. We don’t get enough long holidays. It doesn’t even feel like holidays. My point is, giving assignments during holidays are okay but it doesn’t have to be the book full of unsolved queries,” he added.
Like other high schools, even nursing colleges give assignments during the festive season. Subigya Sharma (name changed), who is a nursing student at HAMS Nursing College, said that Dashain festival is meant for having fun rather than doing the painstaking assignments. She added, “It feels totally bizarre to do assignments during the festive season. What’s the meaning of true festival if you remember the assignments even when you are accepting tika?”
As most of the colleges give assignments from textbooks, students are not tempted toward completing the assignments. They either copy or don’t come to the college even after the college restarts after vacations. Addressing the situation, Pant said, “I understand that the homework is for us but the type of assignments that the college gives us isn’t ‘want to do’ type. So, students like me forget those assignments for a while to celebrate Dashain.” He further added, “To make assignments fun, colleges should give assignments that make students really interested toward the work.”
Not only students, some teachers equally agree that the students should not be given assignments which they don’t feel any burden while doing it. “Assignments should be something that captivates the students to do. Giving project works rather than the questions from the book opposes plagiarism. Also, the student will really learn. However, Math assignments can be taken as an exception. But when it comes to subjects like Science, giving numerical and ‘give reasons’ isn’t practical at all. My point is: giving assignments which they enjoy the most will be a good idea,” said Shankar T. Magar, a science teacher at Euro School, Hattigauda. He further added, “Students get holidays after studying all the time at the school. I think they should be given light work so that they can feel that it’s really a holiday.”
While some students and teachers carry the view of light homework in the vacation, some people truly disagree with the fact. Mansun Singh KC, assistant program coordinator of Global College of Management stated that most of the students found them challenging and tiring. He replied that it depended on the willpower of the students.
He said, “Assignments are the responsibility of the students.” He further believes that assignment helped recall what students had learned. He added, “Not every student is bored because of the vacation homework. Some do it with great fun.”
