Sir, – Conor Pope's revelation in Pricewatch (August 9th) that Finnish secondary school students do less than 30 minutes of homework per day, with some doing none at all, is interesting and thought provoking. It seems that the Finns have got their priorities right on this one with students being permitted to have time to themselves after a long hard day's work.
A wise friend of mine said that if teachers cannot impart enough knowledge to their classes during school hours, then their students should not have to pay for their incompetence by struggling for hours over schoolbooks in the evenings afterwards.
Perhaps there is an educationalist out there or someone with clout in the Department of Education who could look into the Finnish model and act upon their findings by reducing the ridiculous amounts of homework for our overworked students. The time saved does not have to be wasted. Students could be encouraged to use some of the extra hours by reading books, undertaking projects or visiting interesting educational sites on the web. On returning to class, the next day one or two could be devoted to encouraging them to share their findings with the class. This could help many of them to broaden their knowledge base and at the same time develop their investigative and communication skills. – Yours, etc,
BOBBY CARTY,
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Templeogue,
Dublin 6W.