Global Courant 2023-05-24 09:35:00
MANILA – A politician in the Philippines wants students to rest and recharge their batteries on weekends instead of doing homework, while they already spend about 10 hours at school during the week.
To make that happen, Mr. Sam Versoza, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives for Tutok To Win Party-List, proposed a “No Homework Law” that aims to ban teachers from giving homework to basic students on weekends. – and high school students.
In 2010, a Ministry of Education memorandum circular advised teachers to assign a reasonable amount of homework to public elementary school students on weekdays. No homework may be given at the weekend, according to the circular.
Mr Versoza’s bill aims to institutionalize this for all primary and secondary schools across the country.
Since the 17th Congress – from 2016 to 2019 – lawmakers have tried to introduce a weekend homework ban.
However, such measures are still pending with the Parliamentary Committee on Basic Education and Culture.
In a privilege speech on Monday, Mr Versoza said students are working extra hours to complete their homework.
In some cases, parents themselves would complete their children’s chores.
“The Philippine youth is overworked and yet the Philippines is lagging behind other countries,” Versoza said in his privileged speech.
He cited recent reports that the average intelligence quotient (IQ) of Filipinos was 81.64, while the global average IQ was 100. The Philippines ranked 111th out of 200 countries in terms of average IQ.
Alarming
“This is alarming and proves that the Philippines is in the middle of an education crisis. If the system doesn’t work, let’s improve it,” Versoza said.
He noted that Finland, China, South Korea, Japan and other progressive countries are already cutting back on giving students homework and the Philippines should consider doing so as well.
Mr Versoza said an hour of homework a day is “sufficient to achieve satisfactory results” and that increasing the number of hours for homework “could cause stress for students and their families”.
The legislator also pointed to the disparity between rich and poor in completing school assignments.
“Children from wealthier families have more resources such as computers, internet connection, dedicated areas to do school work, and parents who are generally more educated and more available to help them with their homework,” said Mr Versoza.
