IF CHIEF EDUCATION OFFICER Wendy Griffith-Watson has her way, students would be doing their homework at school.

And she is inviting principals and teachers to make recommendations to the Ministry of Education about organising their schools' timetables to accommodate students who can't get their homework done at home.

In an interview with the DAILY NATION, Griffith-Watson voiced her concerns about children from impoverished backgrounds.

"We cannot continue to teach [them] in the same way that we teach children who have parents to help them.

"There are large numbers of children who cannot do homework at home. So when we keep setting homework, it is so self-defeating because they have no supervision.

"They don't even have a little spot at home where they can sit quietly to do homework, . . . and we are really doing them a disservice [by giving them homework]," Griffith-Watson said.

The educator noted that children who fell into this category "would never catch up" with other students whose parents or guardians could help them or who would practise at home.

"We have to look for other compensatory ways to help those children. It's those that are impoverished, that nobody at home is offering the kinds of experiences that will make learning easy in school and therefore I think we have to get away from the myth that merely sending children to school will ensure that they are learning. It is far more complex than that," the chief education officer said.

"Because governments provide access to schools does not mean that that access is equal because when you come from a background where your parents are well educated they value education, they go out of their way to [help]." (DS)