Students in
Singapore are among the world's most hard- working at home,
clocking the third-longest time spent on homework, a report
released this month has found.
The
country's 15-year-olds said that they devoted 9.4 hours to homework
a week, in the study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD).
They came in
behind students in Shanghai, who spend 13.8 hours a week on
homework, and those in Russia, who take 9.7
hours.
Students in
Finland and South Korea spent fewer than three hours - the least
among the 65 countries and regions surveyed - on homework each
week.
The
global average was about five hours' worth of homework each
week.
The
report was based on results from a questionnaire in 2012 for the
OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), a
test to measure academic achievement for
15-year-olds.
Around 510,000
students took part in the test. They were asked questions about
their school environment, families and attitudes towards subjects
and school.
The
study found that students who did more homework scored higher in
Pisa. For instance, Shanghai and Singapore, where students spent
much of their time on homework, came in first and second
respectively in the Pisa mathematics test in
2012.
Across the
countries and regions surveyed, students who came from
socio-economically advantaged backgrounds tended to devote more
hours to homework.
A
spokesman for the Ministry of Education (MOE) said Singapore's
weekly average of 9.4 hours on homework is "fairly reasonable for
upper-secondary students, who would be preparing for the national
examinations".
She
said: "Homework, when used appropriately, can reinforce students'
learning, contribute to their progress and cultivate a healthy
disposition towards learning."
But
in response to parents' concerns about excessive homework in recent
years, schools have adopted policies to monitor and coordinate the
homework load across subjects and departments.
The
MOE spokesman said: "Some teachers may get their students to
complete their assignments in class or after school, rather than at
home."
Swiss Cottage
Secondary School student Nurul Amirah, 15, said her daily routine
of homework and revision starts at 9pm and ends around
midnight.
"I
spend more than 10 hours on homework every week. If exams are
coming, I spend at least 15 hours. But I benefit from assignments
that make me think more," she said.
She
added that teachers and students list homework assignments on their
classroom boards, so students do not get assigned too much work at
any one time.
Associate
Professor Jason Tan, an education policy expert at the National
Institute of Education, said: "The 9.4 hours do not seem that
overwhelming, when students are taking six to nine subjects in
Secondary 3.
"But (the
report) also doesn't give any indication of the subjects the time
is spent on, or the nature of homework, so it's hard to draw any
conclusions from this."
Prof Tan added
that although students in South Korea and Japan were ranked low in
the number of homework hours in this survey, they were not
"learning any less".
"Their students
spend long hours after school in cram schools similar to tuition
centres, called juku in Japan and hagwon in Korea," he
said.
It
is difficult to set a "right" amount of homework for everyone, said
Prof Tan.
"Every student
is different in terms of learning styles and interests, and each
may need a different amount of time for
practice."
asiaone
