More than half of Hong Kong primary pupils get at least seven assignments daily, teachers’ union finds
Survey by largest association in city for educators also reveals some schoolchildren spend over eight hours weekly on extra lessons
More than half of Hong Kong’s primary schoolchildren must tackle at least seven assignments a day, while some have to spend over eight hours on extra lessons a week, a teachers’ union revealed on Thursday.
The Professional Teachers’ Union, the city’s largest in the sector, emailed questionnaires to its primary schoolteachers between December and January, and received 425 valid replies.
Some 54 per cent of those surveyed said their pupils had seven or more assignments a day.
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Two out of five said their pupils had 10 or more assignments to complete over the weekend.
Aside from a large amount of homework, many pupils had additional lessons before or after class, during breaks, or over the weekend.
Three out of five respondents said they conducted such lessons for their pupils, with one-third of those saying they held such classes more than twice a week.
The median time spent on the extra lessons was 1.5 hours a week, while some pupils had more than eight hours of additional classes a week.