A collapse in learning

April 1, 2025, 7:27


Limiting housework was to aid students relax and make passion. However, teachers alarm – many students have completely given up on their own learning, which translates into weaker results and slower pace of work in classes.


A collapse in systematic learning


One of the biggest problems that teachers are curious in is the deficiency of a habit of repeating material at home. Earlier, homework forced students to survey independently, now many of them don't even look at the notebooks. As a result, the level of memorized cognition decreases significantly, and teachers request to spend more time reminding earlier content alternatively of pursuing fresh issues.



– The intent of the change was primarily to reduce the responsibilities of students. From the position of the teacher, I observe that students who did not execute their duties decently did not change their attitude. The deficiency of homework did not make them usage time to perpetuate the acquired knowledge, filling gaps in the news. The ambitious, honest students have not changed their attitude: they are inactive prepared for classes, oriented on the subject, benefit from established knowledge, undertake additional work – says Eliza Hencel, chief of primary school and teacher of Polish.


The introduction of a ban on housework was intended to reduce the excess of the responsibilities of students and relieve them of additional tasks. In principle, students had more time to rest, make their passions and interests, and learn on their own terms. In practice, however, many of them do not usage this anticipation constructively. Teachers inform that without systematic repetition of knowledge, students forget the content and their analytical skills and the habits of self-work gradually weaken.


From the position of teachers, there is besides a difference of approach to learning among different groups of students. Those who have previously applied themselves to discipline and demonstrated commitment stay systematic. In turn, those who have avoided school duties are now even little likely to choice up textbooks or notebooks.


– 1 of the most serious problems arising from the fresh regulation is the deficiency of systematic repetition of material at home – says Education region Joanna Heftowicz, Polish language teacher and blogger Polonist at the board.

– Most students do not look at the books after school, which leads to a situation where each next lesson must start with a reminder of erstwhile content. This importantly reduces time for fresh issues and slows down the pace of teaching.


Many teachers fear that in the long word the deficiency of a habit of regular learning can negatively affect students' performance, especially at later stages of education. In secondary schools and in college, more self-reliance is required in learning, and the deficiency of previously developed mechanisms may consequence in problems with the organization of discipline and the handling of more material.


– I've been teaching past and WOS for 20 years. There have never been so many unprepared for lessons, untrained for student tests. The deficiency of a notebook, the completion of a occupation is simply a standard – says Nina, a teacher from the Warsaw simple school.

– Many parents ask for a occupation home, especially in younger classes. How do you learn to postgraduate without working at home? A teacher must not justice the work brought from home. How to implement interesting educational projects on 1 or 2 lessons per week? – asks rhetorically.


The motivation of students falls


The deficiency of mandatory homework led to another change – a simplification in student motivation. Many of them admit that if something is not judged, they do not see the point of doing it.


– In older classes, the additional work the teacher evaluates by providing feedback is not very popular. Distraction of students from race to evaluation, not knowledge, is simply a process that will not last a year or two. It is simply a process requiring teachers to get competence and skills in shaping and awareness of the value of students and parents of this kind of assessment," the manager adds.

Homework was for many students the only form of contact with material outside the school. Without them, the little ambitious students almost completely stopped repeating the news. The absence of regular repeats may not be felt on an ongoing basis, but the effects will be revealed on final examinations or in subsequent stages of education, where greater autonomy is required.

– Teachers of leading subjects: mathematics, Polish or English signal a crucial decrease in the activity of students with average or mediocre academic performance. Homework obliged young people to repeat the news, to effort to solve the task and thus bridge the gaps," he stressed.

Some teachers effort to introduce another forms of encouraging students to systematic learning, specified as quizzes, group projects or individual educational challenges. However, without a circumstantial strategy that would introduce certain obligations for students, it is hard to number on crucial improvements. As a result, the school is facing an expanding problem of deficiency of engagement of students.

– For many of the students, the deficiency of compulsory homework means no work outside the classroom. If the tasks are optional, many students automatically presume that they do not gotta execute them, which leads to a further decrease in motivation and a deterioration in learning outcomes – Joanna Heftowicz draws attention.

Parents: “Not all student can motivate himself”


The function of parents in motivating children to learn is besides important. erstwhile housework was compulsory, parents frequently checked whether their children had done tasks, helped them in more hard exercises or at least reminded them of having to do them. Now that the assignments have become optional, many parents have no control over how their children spend time after school.

Many parents emphasize that their children do not yet have a habit of learning independently and request clearly defined responsibilities to regularly repeat material. This problem concerns especially younger children who, without a circumstantial task to perform, are reluctant to return to books after school.

The deficiency of homework made education end with the bell for any children.


– Parents of students who honestly fulfil their duties talk about benefits – children have gained time, which they usage for example to make interests. We besides receive the voices of afraid carers who have problem motivating their children to remind us of the lessons. Without a imagination of evaluation for doing homework, they do not see the point of perpetuating information explains Eliza Hencel.



– There is simply a request to talk about the teaching community, to find profits and losses and to modify it, to make rules to relieve students, but not to relieve the work for learning," the school head emphasizes.