Silke Jasso
Well, it looks like politicians want to make life easier for students. Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas and House Deputy Speaker Evelina Escudero have joined forces to end homework on weekends. Vargas filed House Bill 388, which he wants to be passed as the “No Homework on Weekends Acts of 2019.”
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The proposed law seeks to ban elementary and high schools from allowing teachers to give any assignments or homework Friday through Sunday. Violators could face a fine of P50,000 and jail time of up to 2 years if they decided to not follow the law. How did they come up with this ridiculous law?
Well, Vargas cited a study in Western Cape Province, South Africa which was conducted in 2018. The study states that national discussion on homework reflects on how it is perceived, with several scholars arguing that homework is a literal burden not only for children but for parents. They also argued this has caused family time to decline as well as undermined learning interest affecting in a negative way.
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Following Varga’s law, Escudero filed House Bill No 3611 which promotes a no homework policy for kindergarten to grade 12 and barring the taking of the textbooks out of school for kindergarten to grade 6 for public and private schools. Escudero’s bill says all basic education schools need to make sure their respective teachers do not give homework assignments to students by conducting all lessons and activities in school.
Section 5 reads all basic education schools must ensure that all Kinder to grade 6 students shall deposit and leave their textbooks behind and none shall be brought home to prevent the “adverse effects of carrying heavy bags to and from school.” Section 6 states schools will be required to have special lockers for the storage of these books during school hours. Unlike Vargas’ bill, Escudero’s has no provision for penalties.
Putting my two cents in, yeah, I’m sure these homework bills will help some students and families get in their quality time and will improve the well-being of the student. But punishing teachers for giving a child homework or any heavy learning material during the weekend just seems a bit too excessive. I grew up with homework during the weekend and turned out absolutely fine. I mean I get it, homework sucks, especially since you are doing so much work at school already, but come on.
Teachers usually don’t give children homework on the weekends anyways. If they do, then they are basically evil and have no life. I say this law is fine, go for it, but I think it needs to be more realistic by taking off those ridiculous consequences. Can you imagine telling your cellmate who is in for aggravated assault that you’re in for assigning a 150 word summary of a book the kid was supposed to read? Yeah, yikes. The Department of Education needs to speak with these two and come up with a better plan.
