Parents expect teachers to supervise homework at school, teachers leave the task of revision help to parents at home, and overburdened students are caught in the middle.

Moroccan students are supposed to be enjoying their spring holiday week until Monday (April 5th) but for the many who face endless homework exercises, there has been no real vacation.

Hamid, a second-year high school student, faces "innumerable" assignments from his teachers. All are completed after the school day ends.

Private learning centres help over-burdened Moroccan students deal with schoolwork demands.


"Technical subjects require revision outside of school because teachers do not have the patience to explain to students during class," Hamid says. "I revise my lessons with other students to absorb the course material."

In primary and secondary schools across Morocco, students feel the pressure of homework. But while older students such as Hamid can choose to do it together as a team, younger children are forced to turn to their parents.

The burden of having to assist their children with assignments is casting a shadow over Moroccan family life. Too tired to deal with the issue, many parents have handed the task of homework help to private learning centres.

At a pre-school in Temara, four young women began offering evening classes to help local students. Charging a monthly fee of 100-150 dirhams, these unemployed graduates can now earn an income while supplying the district's families with a much-needed service.

Only a few months into the project, however, they recognise that they are dealing with a serious homework crisis. Every day, students have to work through exercises, carry out research or learn things by heart. This is a real race against time, Nawal, 24, tells Magahrebia.

Nawal, who received a degree in business administration three years ago, is highly critical of the quantity of work given to youngsters who do not fully grasp the material. "We've realised that the task facing us is a difficult one to handle. The pupils come to us in some distress," she says.

"My colleagues and I could certainly have done the exercises for them without any difficulty, just as many other teachers do. But we have a conscience which makes us explain the subject matter to them fully so that they can do their homework themselves and, in doing so, we can raise their level," the young tutor adds.

The problem does not lie in the homework itself, but in the difficulty of completing it when the students do not understand what they have been doing in class, says her sister Fatima, a recent law school graduate.

"If these pupils had understood their lessons in class, they could easily have done the homework without needing anyone's help. Unfortunately, that's often not the case," she explains.

According to sociologist Samira Kassimi, this problem was unknown in Morocco a few years ago because teachers set moderate homework requirements.

"Under the present system, those whose parents are well educated manage to keep up, whilst the others find themselves being overtaken."

One mother, Jamila, recognises that her own inability to provide at-home academic help is compromising her daughter Meriem's education. Meriem studies in a private school and also attends outside classes at the learning centre.

She is just 6 years old. Homework is already a major issue.

"I feel I'm at a real disadvantage," Jamila tells Magharebia. "I'd have liked the homework to be done at school so that pupils could rely on themselves from the first day in primary school," she complains.

For Hamdane Barakat's two children, aged 7 and 11, every night is spent on schoolwork. The Rabat company manager says he has to help them with their exercises. It's a real chore, he complains, given that it can take hours on end.

"Instead of talking with my children and playing with them, I continue the stresses and strains of the day. We don't finish until around ten o'clock, which just about gives me time to eat and sleep before embarking on another busy day,'" he says resignedly.

Many parents question whether this should even be their responsibility. Since teachers "are better trained to explain the subject matter to the children", the exercises should be done in class, argues Hamid Bassiri, a father of an eight-year-old son.

Psychologist Ahmed Ismaili agrees that work should be handled during the day. When students are at home, he says, the emphasis should be on family life, rather than school books.

"Children who spend eight hours a day in school should not find themselves weighed down with a mountain of homework to complete during the evening," Ismaili tells Magharebia.

Teachers defend the heavy assignment load. Rabat schoolteacher Samir L. believes that homework is an essential tool for helping students improve their level of achievement. Still, he understands the parents' frustration.

Parents should not have to help their children, because it is the teacher's duty to explain to them in class what they need to do, Samir tells Magharebia.

"I advise parents not to help their children or do the exercises, because they are intended for the children, rather than their families," he says.

Some parents have actually complained to him on the occasions when he failed to assign homework, he notes.

Other parents want Morocco to adopt the strategy of France, where homework is banned entirely.

The Ministry for National Education, Higher Education, Vocational Training and Scientific Research, meanwhile, is trying to strike a balance between these opposing approaches.

Officials have asked senior teachers to avoid assigning heavy workloads at the same time. By staggering homework requirements, teachers can help prevent students from becoming overloaded.

Samira, a third-year high school student, confirms that teachers do not co-ordinate among themselves before giving homework. "They flood us with exercises. If someone protests, it's not taken seriously," she tells Magharebia.

"Even if we've become accustomed to this, it still comes at the expense of our free time."

Source: Text and photos by Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat