Govt Policy Forcing More Homework: Teachers

More than 70 percent of primary school teachers admit they put students under stress with a lot of homework, but blame this on the government’s over-ambitious education policies, a survey has found.

The Professional Teachers' Union polled more than 400 primary school teachers and the respondents said students take home seven assignments each day on average, and possibly more on weekends.

The teachers said the government has been, in recent years, introducing more and more so-called “learning targets” which translated into more homework.

But they said they could not reduce the amount of homework because of the widening school curriculum designed by the government.

More than 60 percent of the teachers also said they have to give pupils additional assignments to cope with the controversial BCA tests, even though they have recently been revised.

Speaking at a press conference held by the union as it published the survey results, education sector lawmaker Ip Kin-yuen called on the Education Bureau to review how much homework children are being given and how useful it is.