C.
Questions and Results of the Questionnaire
1.
How much time do you require to complete homework at home?
less than 1 hour 1-2 hours
16% 46%
2-3 Kours more than 3 hours
24%
14%
2.
What difficulties do you experience doing homework at home?
too noisy (TV, mah-jong) 30.9% too crowded
11.1%
no supervision or assistance other reasons (assisting family
piecework employment, many brothers/sisters, no space)
46.2%
11.8%
3.
Do you know of study rooms in your living area?
yes
Do you go there?
66.2%
no
33.8%
yes
24.6%
no
75.6%
If no, why?
located far from home,
parents would worry
76%
no assistance at the centre others (teddy boys, inconvenient,
no time, too noisy
4.
68%
Would you use a study room if opened within your estate?
yes
*
no
32%
What hours are most suitable for you?
6:30 8:00 p.m.
7:00 - 10:00 p.m.
32.6% 16%
7:00
9:00 p.m.
51.4%
Do you need tutorial assistance during these hours?
yes
86.2%
II. FINDINGS AND INTERPRETATIONS
A.
The Amount of Homework
no
13.8%
10%
14%
From the survey, it is evident that the amount of homework is excessive for primary 3-5 students. According to an Education Department General Circular, the Education Department considers the following lengths of time spent for homework, based on 6 days per weak, excessive:
primary 3 primary 4
1 hour and 20 minutes
ha
1 hour and 30 minutes
-
primary 5 1 hour and 45 minutes primary 6 2 hours
Yet, our survey revealed that of the 530 primary 5 students who completed the questionnaire:
14% required 3 hours to complete homework 32% required 2-3 hours
42% required 1-2 hours
12% raquired less than 1 hour
46% of the primary 5 students required up to 3 hours to complete homework, far exceeding the 1 hour and 45 minutes which the Education Department considers excessive. It is logical to project that primary 6 students would require aven longer. EAG feels our examination-oriented educational system is the cause of such lengthy homework.
B.
Difficulties Encountered While Doing Homework at Home
The burden of heavy homework is aggravated by environmental factors. 30.9% reported that excessive noise from television, radio and mah-jong disturbs their study. Although primary 3-5 students should be naturally active, even at their young age they feel noise handicaps their study. Noise is closely related to over- crowdedness in resettlement estates. Even in the more advanced Mark III and IV resettlement estates, many families do not have 35 square feet per person, the
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