"One way to release pressure in the education system is to provide sufficient rest for students to energise themselves. Holidays are not only beneficial to students..." - Sean Lim Wei Xin.
Mid-term holidays, whether 1 week or 3-days are meant to be an opportunity for students to rest, unwind, recharge, and spend time doing things they enjoy before the other half of school term resumes. If students are loaded with school assignments during this period, it defeats the purpose of the period. Sometimes, schools give students assignments during holidays to keep them engaged because some parents don’t like their children being idle, and giving students a break from school provides room for them to be lax. This is very understandable. But, if at all students must be given assignments, they should be engaging assignment to complement the purpose of the holiday- rest.
Truthfully, 3 days are not enough time to provide sufficient rest for anybody. While mid-term breaks are purposed to serve as mini distractions for students from the routine of sitting down in classes and consuming a lot of things for hours everyday, teachers can use this opportunity to engage students in different ways that can develop them in a skill and ultimately lay a foundation for their future. There’s nothing wrong in giving students assignment during breaks, however, what can be re-invented is assigning tasks to them for the period.
There are tasks teachers can ask students to do while they are away from school for some days or a week. For instance:
- A Home Economics teacher can give students an assignment to prepare a particular dish during the mid-term break and when the students return back to school, they should give reports on what they learnt or how they prepared it. This gives the student an opportunity to be practical with what has been taught, and it makes the teaching more comprehensive for the students since they have put it to practice.
- Schools can also ask students to visit a museum or a cinema and write a few things they learnt from observing the environment. This task can even be used to improve their writing skills.
Just as Sean said, “Holidays are not only beneficial to students.” Teachers and School heads also need the time off to re-energise themselves for the continuation of the school term and spend quality time with their families. They can either go out on picnics with their families or have a week or 3-day family getaway to unwind from school stress. Running a school is not the easiest job, and taking some time off to rest from the stress will not only benefit you as a school owner physically, but also health-wise.
Conclusion:
Students can be given tasks during mid-term breaks. These tasks may be stressful for the students, but would at the same time create fun for them as they put to practice what they’ve been taught in school. They should be fun, engaging and productive for them so they are busy or engaged while resting. What do you think?
