What's with homework and colouring

I'm not sure if it's the norm with schools these days, but H seems to be getting more and more homework. Not that he's complaining, but mommy is since I have to make sure he finishes his homework. H actually likes doing homework. He can be quite fast when he's in the mood, but he's also easily distracted and can take ages if it's something he's not interested in, e.g. colouring.

This week's homework

I simply can't understand the rationale for making the kids do so much colouring. Every subject, whether it's English, Math, Mandarin, etc, seems to require the kids to colour. Shouldn't colouring be reserved for Art classes? It'll make completing the homework so much faster if the kids don't have to colour in the pictures.

H really doesn't take much pride his work. The first few pictures he'll try to colour within the lines using different colours, then it becomes single colour still somewhat within the lines, then towards the end of the page it's just messy scribbles of colour.

I'm actually not too bothered about his colouring skills but I guess I have to teach him about taking pride in his work.