Letters | More homework for Hong Kong students? Only if it is in physical education
- If students must get more homework, make it PE rather than lessons-based, to beat obesity and boost health
In Hong Kong, the fact that homework is excessively heavy is nothing new. We have reason to believe that it is causing harm to students.
Even though physical activity would help prevent such weight gain and the resultant ill health, the fact is homework takes away the time needed to engage in daily exercise. Thus, instead of arguing for less homework, our suggestion is that there should be more homework but it should be in physical education. Physical exercise as a form of homework can encourage students to develop healthy habits and eventually positive well-being.
When teachers prescribe physical exercise as homework, students may choose to engage in sports activities they prefer, and teachers can use a daily log (perhaps, with the help of parents) to monitor the progress. Since the use of technology is so prevalent now, students could live-stream themselves exercising, making the monitoring of exercise homework manageable.
Stephanie Molloy, Isabella Wong and Jennifer Khan, students, CityU
