Are schools setting too much work?

Lock down and the world around us is stressful enough as it is, so many students find that schoolwork and the school routine help to create a sense of normalcy in the world. However, when the work set by teachers is confusing and there is too much of it, it has exactly the opposite effect.

Keeping a routine is a good habit to maintain but when the amount of work you receive is so vast that it takes up more time than necessary, it starts to reduce the amount of time you can spend relaxing or talking to family and friends and improve your mental health. When teachers set more work than what you would have originally achieved in a normal lesson, it seems unnecessary and perplexing. Why set work that imposes more pressure on students to complete when the current situation is already causing enough stress?

Another problem with the remote schooling is that teachers seem to disregard the fact that you have other lessons to attend, setting live lessons which you must attend 3 days before their own lessons. It messes up peoples schedules and sets them back on work which they could have completed instead of being on a call.

Whilst students do understand that it is very hard for teachers to have all the work and lessons prepared for lesson time, it does pose problems when work is set after lesson time. The work is expected to be completed by a deadline and when the work is set late it means pupils need to complete the work outside of school time in order to keep up with the workload. This is bad as it is very important for people to have a clear distinction between when it is time for work and when it is time to relax. Student Charlotte Miller has stated that “I am getting spammed by so many emails (about work) up to like 11 at night”.

As a student myself I would like to extend a thank you to the teachers who are managing to keep a sense of normalcy throughout these troubling times. However, some teachers seem to only be adding pressure to students, which isn’t good for anyone. Whilst some may see this as a time to reorganise their lives and learn new skills, for many it is about managing to remain healthy, happy and reduce the amount of stress and worry whilst keeping up with their education.