Polish kids over there living the life we all wish we'd had when we were their age:
Compulsory, graded homework will be abolished in Poland's primary schools from April, education minister Barbara Nowacka has announced, fulfilling a pre-election election promise by her party. She hopes that in future secondary school pupils will also no longer receive homework. ...
The pledge to abolish homework in primary schools was included in the 100 promises announced by Tusk last September ahead of elections and was then included in the coalition agreement his Civic Coalition (KO) signed with two other groups in November, paving the way for them to form a new government.
The homework abolishment has been in the works for a while and is finally coming to fruition in just a few weeks — and it comes as research indicate Polish students already have too much homework:
Polish school pupils have a slightly higher homework burden than the average in other countries, a report by Poland's Educational Research Institute (IBE) has found. It also noted that greater amounts of homework are not associated with better learning outcomes - in fact, the opposite is true.
Just in case you're curious, the jury is still sort of out on homework: There is "no conclusive evidence that homework increases student achievement across the board." Some studies show some positive benefits for some students, others show negative benefits, some are in between.
All I know is I spent a lot of time doing my homework in the early 90s when I'd rather have been outdoors doing fun stuff.
The Polish ed minister seems to get it!
Nowacka said that currently primary school pupils have "an excess of things to learn, to memorise, also at home, at the expense of free time, at the expense of extra-curricular activities, at the expense of meeting friends".
Enjoy it, Polish kids, you're officially the envy of kids the world over!
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