Many children are being deprived of extracurricular activities because their parents insist they spend an average of 16 hours a week on homework, a survey has shown.
About 38 per cent of 723 primary school pupils surveyed were not taking part in any extracurricular activities, while 45.2 per cent spent about 16 hours a week on homework.
Half the parents polled cited heavy homework as the reason for stopping their children from signing up for the programmes.
About 13.5 per cent said children were not interested in the activities while 9.9 per cent said it was not necessary. Another 8.8 per cent said they could not afford it.
The study was conducted in May by the Caritas Child and Youth Centre in Lam Tin.
Most common activities were sport, dancing, music lessons, languages, computers and arts.
