BHOPAL: Vacations for children are no longer fun and leisure and quality time with parents. There’s always the nagging worry about holiday projects to be completed.

Ashish, a Class 7 student of a private school, had to forgo his winter vacation with parents as he had complete his school projects — 10 of them in a vacation spanning a week. Ashish’s school is not the only one to believe that children — stressed out as they are — need to be kept engaged even during vacations.

Child psychologists caution against this trend. Vacations are a must to energise kids, keep them away from monotony of school and get them involved in creative or recreation work, they say. Most important, this is the only time parents and kids get some time together.

“It is better to keep the school open rather than give us project work and homework. I was supposed to go out with my parents to a

for few days. We couldn’t. The assignments were such that it was not possible for me to complete them if I went out of

, said Shlok, a Class 9 student.

Parents are hardly amused. They say vacation homework takes away precious time with their kids. “I felt so sad to see that my child was busier than usual due to holiday projects. It spoiled his vacation, and irritated him, which is not a good thing. Can’t schools leave kids free for even a week?” asked Anand Mahajan, a parent.

It gets even more problematic if both parents are working. “We could have had a good time during winter vacations. We had no plan to go outside, but wanted to spend time together as during school days we get very little time with kids,” said Vineet D’Souza, a parent. They could not spend vacations properly even at home. “My children were busy completing project assignments,” he said.

Some parents said they are not against vacation homework and projects, but there should be a rationality to it. “Kids should get less homework during vacations so that they can enjoy holidays. It will keep them interested in academics,” said

.

Psychologists are also against giving assignments to students during vacations. “Such intense homework and high number of projects given during vacations have bad effects on children. Students start completing vacation homework as a formality instead of learning from them. Let them have a good break at least for few days,” said Dr Satyakant Trivedi. School Parents Association general secretary Prabhod Pandya said when students are forced to complete assignments it ruins their vacations. “Let them have some freedom from academics,” said Pandya.