'No-homework' policy bill filed in Senate

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.

RELATED: DepEd pabor sa panukalang pagbabawal ng 'homework' tuwing Sabado, Linggo

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