Peel Board studies homework ban

Teacher Mai-Liss Tou, with her son Hayden, 4,  says a homework ban could  weaken a student’s sense of responsibility. (PHOTO: Courtesy)

By Melis Mevlutoglu
Skedline
Assigning homework in elementary school and high school may give students moving onto post-secondary a sense of responsibility.

Quebec’s elementary school, College de St. Ambroise, is banning homework for the year as a pilot project. The elementary school has over 300 students and teaches students from Grades 1 to 6. This pilot project has been put in effect to see whether or not a homework ban would increase a student’s grades.

On the heels of College de St. Ambroise eliminating homework for the school year, the GTA’s Peel District School Board is thinking about doing the same.

Peel’s coordinating principal for elementary education, Catherine Roper says the board’s current homework policy is under review.

“Educators are very much about research,” says Roper. “If there’s research that shows things are a better practice we absolutely always consider that.”
Although a ban may be considered in the future, a lack of homework may have an affect on students once they move to post-secondary.

Thomas Street Middle School teacher, Mai-Liis Tou says a homework ban can decrease the amount of responsibility that young adults have.

“Your marks are going to drop at least fifteen per cent from high school to university,” says Tou. “You’re not going to have that responsibility that you have things that have to be done.”

Humber College nursing professor, Wendy Chow, teaches over 100 students a year. She says she regularly assigns an ample amount of homework for students to complete.

Chow says a homework ban may decrease stress for students, but it could also affect how students do in their post-secondary studies.

“I think it could negatively affect them because in post-secondary it’s a lot of independent learning,” says Chow. “Without having practiced it throughout the years of public school, high school, and so forth, they won’t do well.”