MANILA – Allowing students to spend quality time with their family at home, a pending House of Representatives bill is looking to ban homework for students during weekends.
Quezon City representative Alfred Vargas filed House Bill 388, which seeks to ban all elementary and high school teachers from giving homework or assignments to students over the weekend.
Vargas said a study in Western Cape Province, South Africa showed that national discussions on homework reflect on how homework was perceived, with scholars arguing that homework is a burden for children and parents, family time has declined and 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 yet in general it is positively associated with academic achievement,” Vargas said.
Violators of the proposed bill will face a fine of P50,000 and jail time of up to two years.
House Deputy speaker Evelina 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.
Escudero’s bill states that all basic education schools shall make sure that their teachers will not give homework assignments to students from Kinder to Grade 12 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./PN