EJ Insight » Hong KongToday, 15:45
Secretary for Education Eddie Ng Hak-kim stirred up another hornet’s nest with a remark at a meeting of the Legislative Council’s panel for education, thestandnews.com reports.
At the meeting Monday, New People’s Party legislator Michael Tien Puk-sun urged the Education Bureau (EDB) to step up its efforts in its proposed educational reform to realize its objective of having “zero homework”.
Tien said some students were given as many as 23 assignments for their Easter holidays.
In response, Ng asked Tien to produce evidence of the 23 assignments for the EDB to follow up.
Numerous parents reacted on social media by calling on fellow parents to post online their children’s homework lists, to provide the evidence Ng demanded.
Tien said some students are given more assignments than their student handbooks, in which they list their homework, can accommodate.
He said some students were given 18 art tasks in one day, while others were handed 23 pieces of homework for the Easter holidays.
Tien urged the EDB to issue guidelines to schools requiring that all assignments be completed during school hours, so students have free time to read, watch movies and play after school.
Parents left comments on their social media accounts complaining that their children face huge pressure from homework.
“Isn’t it a shame if Eddie Ng still has no idea that all subsidized schools give students homework every day?” one angry parent said.
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