P.E.I. board may set homework policy

Officials with the Eastern School District in P.E.I. say the board may set a homework policy after a Statistics Canada reportsuggested pupilsin the province are among those assigned the most homework in the country.

Part of the study, released Sept. 25, measured how many nine-year-olds across Canada receive homework daily.

Of P.E.I. students in that category, 80 per cent were given homework every day, the second-highest rate in the country after Newfoundland and Labrador. The national average was 54 per cent.

Walter Wilkins,director of curriculum delivery for the Eastern School District, said its currently up to the school principal or teacher to decide the amount of homework. He said the school board would like to develop a policy.

"I think we ought to have a common understanding from the parent's perspective, and from the school perspective, on what good homework looks like," said Wilkins.

"Good homework" reinforces the approved curriculum and can follow work done in class, he said, while "bad homework" introduces new ideas or work for its own sake.

Wilkins said once such principles are in place, the board may consider setting limits on an acceptable amount of homework.

The Eastern School District is the largest school district in P.E.I. Itincludes 35 schools withabout13,000 students in grades 1 through 12.