'No-homework' policy bill filed in Senate

(Philstar.com) - August 28, 2019 - 5:21pm

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Grace Poe filed a Senate bill banning teachers
to give homework or assignments to students on weekends.

The senator authored Senate Bill 966 or the proposed "No Homework Law."

"All primary and secondary schools in the country shall not allow teachers to
give any network or assignments to students from Kinder to Grade 12 on
weekends," the bill read.

Under the proposed measure, teachers may only assign homework to

students on weekends provided that it be minimal and will not require more
than four hours to be completed.

Poe stressed that the "no homework" policy on weekends will be applied to
both public and private schools.

In the Senate bill, Poe pointed out that the state is mandated to safeguard the
welfare of teachers and school children.

Citing a study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and

Development's Program for International Student Assessment, the senator
noted that additional time spent on homework has a negligible impact on the
performance of students. This is after around four hours of homework in a
week.

"Further, it looked at homework hours around the world and found that there
wasn't much of a connection between how much homework students of a
particular country do and how well their students score on tests," the bill read.

Similar proposals have been filed at the House of Representatives earlier this
week.

Rep. Evelina Escudero (Sorsogon) and Rep. Alfred Vargas (Quezon City)
have filed separate measures banning the giving of homework to students on
weekends.

The DepEd welcomed this no-homework policy proposal from lawmakers.

"We want all formal studying, assignment, project, whatever, to be done inside
the school," Education Secretary Leonor Briones said in a radio interview
Tuesday. — Patricia Lourdes Viray
Lawmakers want to ban
homework for students
RG Cruz, ABS-CBN News
Posted at Aug 26 2019 09:46 PM

MANILA - If Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas and House Deputy Speaker Evelina
Escudero will have their way, homework for students could be a thing of the past.
Vargas has filed House Bill 388, which he wants to be passed as the “No
Homework on Weekends Act of 2019".
The proposed law seeks to ban all elementary and high schools from allowing
teachers to give homework or assignments over the weekend. Violators will face a
fine of P50,000 and jail time of up to 2 years.
In his explanatory note, Vargas cited a 2018 study in Western Cape Province,
South Africa that states that national discussions on homework reflects on how
homework is perceived,with scholars arguing that homework is a burden for
children and parents, that family time has declined and that it undermines learning
interest.
“In addition, a few landmark studies have suggested that homework does impact
upon family life, in some cases, in a negative way (Dudley Marling, 2003 Xu and
Corno, 1998) yet in general it is positively associated with academic achievement
(Carmichael and MacDonald, 2016; Cooper, Robinson and Patall, 2006)”
Escudero, meanwhile, filed House Bill 3611 which promotes a no-homework
policy for kinder to grade 12 and barring the taking of textbooks out of the school
for kinder to grade 6 students in all public and private schools.
Section 4 of Escudero’s bill says that all basic education schools shall make sure
that their respective teachers will not give homework assignments to Kinder to
Grade 12 students by conducting all lessons and activities in school.
Section 5 says that all basic education schools shall ensure that all Kinder to Grade
6 students shall deposit and leave their textbooks in school and no textbooks shall
be brought home to prevent the adverse effects of carrying heavy bags to and from
school.
Section 6 will require schools to have lockers for the storage of students’ books.
Unlike Vargas, Escudero’s bill has no provisions for penalties.