ban of homework in ireland

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President of Ireland calls on schools to stop giving pupils homework

Children should be able to use time at home ‘for other creative things’, says michael d higgins, article bookmarked.

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Schools should strive not to give pupils homework where possible, the president of Ireland has suggested.

In an utterance likely to be seized upon by children for years to come, in classrooms far beyond the shores of the Emerald Isle, Michael D Higgins argued that school should not extend beyond the final bell.

“Time in school … should get finished in school,” the president told pupils at a school in County Tipperary this week during a broadcast for RTE.

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President Michael D Higgins says homework should be banned in Ireland

The country’s favourite leader believes that school activities should end at the school gate and students should be encouraged to engage in more creative pursuits

• 10:39, 21 JAN 2023

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President Michael D Higgins has called for homework to be banned.

The country’s favourite leader has given hope to a new generation of students that the bane of their afterschool evenings could be scrapped. President Higgins argues that this would make time for young people to engage in more creative pursuits outside school hours.

The former Arts Minister believes that school activities should end at the school gate. He was speaking to RTE’s news2day current affairs and news programme for children on the occasion of the programme’s 20th birthday.

Read more: Children being 'corrupted' by drug dealing situation in Oliver Bond flats, Dail told

When asked what his opinion of homework President Higgins said: “I think myself, really that the time at home, and the time in the school is an educational experience and it should get finished at the school and people should be able to use their time for other creative things.”

To mark the show’s two decades on air, students from St Kevin’s National School, Littleton, County Tipperary put questions from RTÉ news2day viewers to President Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin. In a wide-ranging interview, the children asked the President questions like, what was your favourite sport when you were in school?

When you were nine years old what did you want to be? And when did you decide you wanted to be President?

The students also asked the President about his dogs, his official trips abroad, his favourite subject in school, differences between now and when he was a child and his favourite book. The President also spoke to the children about his love of handball and the importance of friendship in their lives.

RTÉ news2day will broadcast some of the President’s interview as part of Friday afternoon’s birthday celebrations at 4.20pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ News channel and the full interview will be available later on Friday evening on the RTÉ Player. In a message to the children of Ireland and the viewers of RTÉ news2day, President Michael D. Higgins gave this advice: “To stay curious about everything and I think it’s important to make sure you don’t miss the joy of sharing information.

“And I think an important thing is friendship and to make sure that there’s no one left without friendship and that people belong. And we will all do individual things... but I think friendships that you make will in fact always be great memories and that is so important. And also have the courage to stand your own ground and let other children be allowed the space of standing their ground too because none of us are the same.

“We’re all unique but at the same time we have a lot going for us.” President Higgins also encouraged the children of Ireland to speak the Irish language.

He encouraged them to speak Irish in a fun way and to feel free to use whatever bits of the language that they have.

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President Michael D Higgins calls for school homework to be scrapped

President Michael D Higgins stopped by St Kevin's National School in Tipperary where the pupils interviewed him about his dogs, his time in school and his view on homework

• 15:01, 21 JAN 2023

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President of Ireland Michael D Higgins has said he supports the scrapping of homework.

He addressed students of St Kevin's National School, Littleton, Co Tipperary, this week in an episode of RTE's news2day programme.

The President said that schoolwork should be completed in school time so children can use time after school to pursue more creative activities.

Read more: Ireland weather: Met Eireann pin point the end of the cold snap as temperatures skyrocket next week

“People should be able to use their time for other creative things,” he said.

"I think as much as possible that [homework] should happen in the school and I think it’s more relaxed than it used to be.”

He said that not all lessons are learned from books, but that the responsible use of phones is something that he hopes the younger generation will be acutely aware of.

The children of Ireland "have a great value of friendships" and this makes it even more tragic when there is an "abuse of phones for bullying", the President said.

The pupils were also curious about some of the other residents of Aras an Uachtaran - dogs Brod and Misneach.

"He's probably a very famous dog now," said President Higgins of Brod. "He will be 11 in February, which is a very good age for a Bernese Mountain dog and Bród is wonderful.

"He came here at six weeks old, so he's lived all of his life at the Áras..

As for Misneach, he said: "He came during Covid and because I couldn't collect him because of the ban on inter-county travel, he didn't come to me until he was five months old.

"He also didn't have a good journey here, so he's actually shy. He's a beautiful dog."

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The President Of Ireland Wants To Get Rid Of Homework & Honestly, He's Onto Something

“The time in the school is an educational experience and it should get finished at the school.”

Do you know who doesn’t like homework? Kids — and certain presidents. In an impassioned plea to the people of his nation, President Michael D. Higgins has called for a ban on homework across Ireland. And if small children were given the right to vote tomorrow, I feel fairly certain I know whose name they would be supporting on the ballot.

Higgins, who is himself a former Arts Minister of Ireland and therefore, in my opinion, knows a little about the subject, spoke to Ireland’s news program for kids RTE’s news2day at St. Kevin’s School in Tipperary about a number of subjects. What he wanted to be when he was a kid himself. What was his favorite sport in school, which he said was handball. When did he decide he wanted to be president. And then, the mutual bane of their existence — homework.

“I think myself, really that the time at home, and the time in the school is an educational experience and it should get finished at the school and people should be able to use their time for other creative things,” Higgins told his interviewers, four children hanging on his every word.

While it remains unclear if Higgins has begun any official paperwork to ban homework, which would ironically be homework for him, his sentiment resonated with his many fans. Children and social media users alike in fact. One person tweeted their appreciation of the fact that Higgins was “running his nation like the little Hobbit he is.”

Another social media user wondered if Higgins was really a “forest sprite.”

This social media user found the idea inspiring , writing, “We need a national conversation on how to bring more play, creativity, imagination, movement and positive experiences into our children’s lives. Banning homework would be a great first step.”

Higgins ended his interview with a message to children about the importance of fostering their friendships and telling them to “stay curious about everything and I think it’s important to make sure you don’t miss the joy of sharing information. And I think an important thing is friendship and to make sure that there’s no one left without friendship and that people belong. And we will all do individual things... but I think friendships that you make will in fact always be great memories and that is so important.”

I think he’s on to something.

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'Why I believe homework should be banned', by one primary school student

As the discussion around state exams through the Covid-19 shutdown continues, a separate debate about the very need for homework itself rumbles on. Over the years, many have argued that homework for students in busy modern-day family structures is no longer workable.

This year, the Green Party sought to open a discussion about the banning of homework in future. Here, primary school pupil Misha McEnaney, a fifth class student from Dublin, outlines why he believes homework is more of a hindrance than a help.

IRISH CHILDREN SPEND around 274.5 hours on homework in a year. Is it a waste of time? Generally speaking, homework does not improve academic performance among children, although it may improve academic skills among older students especially lower-achieving kids. Homework also creates stress among students who could be doing other things.

I think it is a waste of time. Here’s why I think so. 

Many students think homework is extremely boring and hard so it increases our stress levels. You might fight with your family or friends and that gives the impression you are angry and irritated when often it’s just because your homework is increasing your stress.

Also, a study by scholar Denise Pope at Stanford shows that out of 4,300 students at high-performance schools, 60% stated that their homework was their primary source of stress.

Movement is more important

I believe that homework eliminates time when you could be exercising, playing sports, carrying out hobbies, reading etc. So when your friends are playing outside or something exciting or important is happening you can’t go out because you’re stuck inside doing your homework. 

Homework messes up your sleep cycles and it causes you to be more tired. After school when you’re tired from working you still have to do your homework, so you don’t deliver your full concentration and that makes your performance not as acceptable as it should be. This can cause your grade to go down and so that defeats the whole point of education to become better and smarter. 

A study from teenink.com shows that students perform best in school when they receive 10–12 hours of sleep each night, while only 15% of teenagers in America reported themselves sleeping eight hours or more on school nights, according to the national sleep foundation of America. Sleep disruption is very bad for our health.

Teacher trust

If you’re completely booked up for the day doing sports or other activities you have no time to do your homework. Your teachers start to trust you less and less and this develops a bad view of you when it’s not entirely your fault. 

It’s also repetitive so you’re doing the same work at school and there’s no effectiveness, it’s not going in. So all that homework becomes a waste because you have already completed it at school. You can also easily get distracted.

Homework takes away revision time for tests and that can affect the test scores. That develops a bad reputation for the student and for the school. The parents then assume that the teaching at the school is bad and they might move school. So the kid might lose friends and over time the school becomes less liked and popular.

All because there is too much homework. 

Bad for the mood

If you don’t sleep enough it can cause mood swings which can affect students’ performance and relationships. To think we can stop all of this by just banning homework makes me wonder why schools still give out homework at all.

People who believe that homework should not be banned have reasonable points and arguments. They believe that doing homework at home can be better for the students and they would receive higher results. 

They also think the parents of the students will have an idea of what type of work they are doing in the classroom, at what scale the student is doing their work and how the student is doing that work. There is absolutely no reason why parents shouldn’t know what the student’s work is like. 

Some people believe that homework boosts interaction between a student and his or her teacher. Homework might develop their presentation skills. They believe that homework is “a remedy against weaknesses”. These can all be done at school. They believe it teaches the students responsibility because they have to make sure that they do their work and not lose it or destroy it. 

They think the students learn much more new information as well as in school. So people think it teaches the students important life skills. They also think it keeps the students busy and entertained. I would argue that these should all be the responsibility of parents, not school.

A shift in the debate

The Green Party in Ireland has promised to explore the banning of homework for primary school children. They also vow to review primary and secondary schools curriculum “to meet the needs of the 21st century”. Catherine Martin, deputy leader of the Green Party, said that “the phasing out of homework is something that definitely should be explored”. 

“This isn’t new, this has been on our policy for the past several years. And I think we really need to have a conversation on how best to develop the creative juices of our children, or really change how we do homework, homework could be, ‘go home and draw a picture of something that means a lot to you’,” she said.

“They’re so young, especially up to the age of seven or eight, it’s a conversation that we need to have”. 

She used the example of Loreto Primary School in Rathfarnham, Dublin, which is currently trialling a “no-homework” programme for all classes except sixth. Ms Martin said that they had found the pilot scheme “amazing” and children were spending a lot more time with their families as a result. 

Mental health considerations

Psychotherapist Mary McHugh believes that we are reducing children’s natural “curious, imaginative and creative” tendencies by “pressuring them to conform”. 

“Our children from the age of three, are being trained to sit still and from five upwards, it’s expected that this is the norm.” McHugh also says that “stress is showing up at an alarming scale and we’re still applying more pressure academically younger and younger”. 

Let’s look at Finland. In Finland, there is no homework in all schools. Finland agrees that there should be no homework because it increases stress, it wastes time etc. Finnish students regularly top the charts on global education metric systems.

Some 93% of Finnish students graduate from secondary school compared to 75% in the USA and 78% in Canada. About two in every three students in Finland go to college which is the highest rate in Europe. The students’ test scores dominate everyone else.  These are the scores for the PISA test (Program for International Student Assessment) 2006.  There are other reasons why Finland’s education system is so good but no homework is definitely an important one. 

Homework increases stress levels among students. It replaces time for hobbies and sports. It messes up your sleep. It can’t always be done and that causes trouble. It’s repetitive. You can develop health problems from lack of sleep.

It takes away time for studying and also when you don’t get enough sleep you can get mood swings and that can affect performance and relationships. There are reasonable arguments for why people who believe that homework shouldn’t be banned are wrong.

We have seen that the Green Party also thinks that homework should be banned and that some schools have already trialled it. We have looked at Finland banning homework and we have seen the impact it has made compared to other countries. This is why I think homework should be banned, not just in my school but in all schools. 

Misha McEnaney is a fifth class student at St Mary’s College, Rathmines, Dublin.

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Schoolchildren and parents urge minister to introduce homework ban

The Department of Education told the letter writers that homework policy was not within its powers. File picture: PA

Schoolchildren and parents have pleaded with Education Minister Norma Foley to step in and introduce a homework ban.

In letters to the minister, children wrote about how they were being forced to give up hobbies because they were given so much work to do after school.

The correspondence followed comments by President Michael D Higgins in January that a ban on homework should be considered.

In one letter, a child wrote about how seven hours of school each day was “plenty of education”.

“I do not ask for homework to be completely banned but for it to be reduced to a certain limit. 

Otherwise, if there is a constant build-up of homework daily, it can cause stress and even a lack of exercise which will affect a person’s well-being.

Another wrote: “Kids should be doing more creative things with their time after school. Many kids have had to stop doing hobbies because of it." 

One handwritten letter, decorated with a Minnie Mouse bow, said homework was “annoying for teachers and pupils”.

“I play soccer and love writing stories, but because of homework, I have no time for doing these things. For teachers, it gives them more copies to correct and they have to go through the trouble of deciding what homework to give.” 

A secondary school student said that if “sleeping isn’t for school” then “work isn’t for home”.

“When I would finish homework, there would be barely any time for me to relax before I had to go to bed to get enough sleep to get up in the morning,” said their letter.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, our president Michael D Higgins also thinks that homework should be banned so if you don’t want to listen to me, listen to our President.” 

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A single parent also wrote in to explain how one of their children was getting two hours of written homework every day.

They said: “We need time to teach them life skills such as sewing, cooking, how to work the washing machine, change their own bed sheets, and personal care.

“These teachings are very hard for parents with zero time left in the evenings. There is no time for them to spend with siblings and parents because they are so tired.” 

Department response

In response, the Department of Education told the letter writers that homework policy was not within its powers.

In emails, the department said: "It is a matter for each school, at local level, to arrive at its own homework policy.

“In keeping with good practice, the process of drafting a homework policy should involve consultation with teachers, parents, and students.

“However, the department does acknowledge that homework can play an important part in helping pupils prepare for forthcoming class work and in reinforcing work already covered during class time.”

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President of Ireland calls for homework to be banned

President of Ireland Michael D Higgins. (Source: Getty)

The President of Ireland has made his thoughts known about homework, saying it should be left at the gate and children should be able to use their leisure time for "creative things".

Speaking to RTE’s news2day - a current affairs and news programme for children, Michael D Higgins answered questions on a wide range of topics, the Irish Mirror reports .

When pressed on his views about homework Higgins said: “I think myself, really that the time at home, and the time in the school is an educational experience and it should get finished at the school and people should be able to use their time for other creative things.”

Higgins, a former arts minister, told children “to stay curious about everything and I think it’s important to make sure you don’t miss the joy of sharing information.

“And I think an important thing is friendship and to make sure that there’s no one left without friendship and that people belong. And we will all do individual things... but I think friendships that you make will in fact always be great memories and that is so important.

“And also have the courage to stand your own ground and let other children be allowed the space of standing their ground too because none of us are the same.

“We’re all unique but at the same time we have a lot going for us.”

Higgins also encouraged the children of Ireland to speak the Irish language.

While the role of president in Ireland is mainly a ceremonial one, it does have some sway over how the government operates.

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School homework: Does it have any benefit at all?

One of the lessons of the past year is that children need different types of learning.

‘We need to be far more creative about how we assess ability and we need to be far more inclusive of different skill-sets,’ says psychotherapist Dr Colman Noctor. Photograph: iStock

When the children returned to school last September I dared to dream, for the short while I was allowed, that homework might be a thing of the past. Our afternoons and evenings were our own, the kids were more content going to school in spite of all the necessary changes, and things were certainly less fractious around the dining-room table. Had the pandemic finally seen off the one thing that many parents had longed to see the back of for years?

Alas, it was not to be. Just a few short weeks later, the dreaded homework returned – and, with it, the familiar dip in the afternoon mood.

As my troops returned in staggered sequence to school this time around, excitement levels were just as high as last September. They’d missed their friends, teachers, classroom learning and routine. In fact they’d missed every single thing about school except homework. The time, however, there was no homework honeymoon period.

There's nothing any more to suggest that the kind of homework we were getting when we were in school is in any way beneficial at all for the children who are doing it

With many parents, teachers and mental health professionals against the idea of homework for primary-school children, you’d have to wonder why we continue with it at all.

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"Tradition is the simple answer" says Simon Lewis, principal of Carlow Educate Together school. "People don't like the absence of something that's been going on for a long time.

“There’s just nothing any more to suggest that the kind of homework we were getting when we were in school is in any way beneficial at all for the children who are doing it. Much like everything else in education, we either have to evolve what we’re doing to suit the needs of today or we have to scrap things that make no sense any more.”

Instead of the traditional homework we’ve come to know and loathe, Lewis would rather see children “getting good at whatever floats their boat”.

“You’ve got people who’d be very traditional and conservative in their views and have lots of arguments as to why we should keep homework. I spend a lot of my time debunking all those myths.”

One such myth, Lewis says, is the argument that homework is good at preparing pupils for secondary school. “It’s a very weak argument. Even logically it makes no sense.” He dismisses the notion that “a child isn’t going to know what to do because they didn’t have eight years of it previously”. Otherwise no child would be capable of taking up a new foreign language at secondary school, for example.

Anything that tends to their mental health is where I want to be focusing my energy this year, and that doesn't include homework

“I get asked about reading. That’s always a counterargument, and it’s probably the best counterargument that I’ve heard. But, again, everybody doing the same thing, everybody reading the same thing, just doesn’t make any sense, because children have different interests; children have different levels of reading. Even families have different interests.”

Lewis has banned spellings and tables at his school, because “there are so many better ways to learn, and learning lists of things off by heart is no way”. He says that there are benefits to parents being kept up to date with what’s going on in school but that the apps used during remote learning facilitate this. “I’d like to think that most schools have now reasonably well-established models for contacting parents.”

Lewis believes his feelings about homework are common among principals. He gave a presentation a couple of years ago at the Irish Primary Principals Network conference, he says, where a straw poll was done. More than 90 per cent of principals said they would get rid of homework immediately if they could. “I think we’re just waiting for somebody to pull the plug on it, but we’d have to be backed up to do it, because it’s so emotive.”

Emer O’Connor says homework for her children will “typically take an hour”. “Although teachers say the homework should only take a short amount of time, this is not my experience. The children are tired and distracted.

“The homework is usually the same every day, so they are not excited about it. It’s a chore that just has to be done, and the parent is the one who has to cajole, pressure, force, bribe, etc. It drives a wedge between parents and their children and has a negative effect on their relationships,” she says.

“They need this time outside more now than they ever did before. They are sitting at their desks more. Classroom movement is hugely restricted. There are more rules to adhere to. They have no drama, music, playball or GAA. Even outside school their activities are curtailed due to Covid.

“The very last thing I want to do when they come home from school is to tell them that they have to sit back down again at the table to do more work. Now more than ever we are being encouraged to tend to our children’s mental health. Anything that tends to their mental health is where I want to be focusing my energy this year, and that doesn’t include homework.”

O’Connor says she would love to see schools look at this “with fresh eyes and make it something that works for our school and our families”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said there will be no homework for children on April 12th. While it’s a start, Starcamp summer-camp owner Aideen O’Grady says she “strongly and categorically believes” it’s time for homework to become a thing of the past for primary-school children.

Parents and students have had enough of kitchen-table schoolwork this year – the focus between Easter and summer should be on wellbeing

“By the time they get home from school, at around 3 or 3.30pm, they eat, and then it’s straight out with the books until dinner time, by when they are exhausted. It’s often stressful, tiring and repetitive.

“Children should be allowed to be children. To simply play, to engage in sport, to be challenged and to challenge, to use their imaginations, to create, to listen to music, to be at one with nature, to find fun, to push boundaries, to find themselves, to lose themselves, to be with their friends, to climb trees, build fairy gardens or forts, to find solutions to real life situations, to fall and pick themselves up, to learn to think outside the box, to communicate more, chat with parents, grandparents, neighbours, to find out who they are, where their talents lie and what they love about life.”

O’Grady says not enough emphasis is put on balance for children. “If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to enjoy life as much as we can – and this should include children, who have suffered enough. Sometimes people keep doing what has always been done, without evaluation or an upgrade. Homework is one of those things that has gone without change for far too long. Has anyone stepped up and truly reconsidered the benefits of children being free for what is only a few hours after school?”

Dr Colman Noctor, a child and adolescent psychotherapist, says he does not see the purpose of starting homework "so early and so stringently" and believes homework at primary school at the moment is not a good idea. "Parents and students have had enough of kitchen-table schoolwork this year – the focus between Easter and summer should be on wellbeing.

“I work off a cost-benefit-analysis philosophy, and while the benefits are minimal for some, the costs of homework are great for others. I am fully aware that my role as a psychotherapist means my view is skewed by the fact that I only hear about the problems with most things, but the stories from parents and children about homework are unanimously negative. The argument and stress that these tasks cause some families is phenomenal.

“What I have learned is that ... lots of homework stresses the studious, conscientious child out and causes the unenthusiastic child to opt out.”

Noctor believes there are lessons to be taken from the pandemic and school closures. “What the last year has taught us is that our education system is a very narrow measurement which rewards the child who is engaged, well-supported and has a proclivity for rote learning and a good memory. What we have also learned is that if you are not that type of learner, then tough luck.

“We need to be far more ambitious about what we understand learning to be. We need to be far more creative about how we assess ability, and we need to be far more inclusive of different skill sets. For me, homework and the traditional Leaving Cert are borne out of the same ideology, one that values compliance over engagement.”

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New research shows children in Ireland spend third longest on homework worldwide

Studious teens spend almost eight hours EVERY week slaving over their books

• 13:17, 19 FEB 2015
• Updated 13:54, 19 FEB 2015

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Attention parents - next time your teen begs for a study break they might really need it.

New research suggests that children in Ireland are the third hardest working in world when it comes to their studies.

New analysis of OECD education data by mapper Omar Sarhan shows that Irish students spend an average of 7.31 hours on their homework every week.

Russia tops the list, where teens toil for 9.75 hours per week on their studies, followed by Italian students, who spend 8.73 hours per week on homework.

Polish schoolgoers are fourth, spending an average of 6.6 hours per week on homework, followed by Spanish students who devote 6.5 hours to their studies every seven days.

Hungary is next (6.22 hours) followed by the US (6.09 hours), Australia (6.04 hours), the Netherlands (5.84) hours and Thailand (5.59 hours).

At the other end of the scale, Finnish teens come out as world's laziest students -spending just 2.78 hours a week on homework.

Korea is next (2.87 hours) followed by the Czech Republic (3.14 hours), the Slovak Republic (3.23 hours) and Brazil (3.32 hours)

But don't give them free reign of the X-box just yet - the 2012 data also shows that Irish kids spent 24.6 minutes less on homework per week than they did a decade earlier in 2003.

Are kids in Ireland spending too much time on homework?

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