Homework around the world: How much is too much?

Every child's dream is, it turns out, many New York parents' nightmare. A public school for primary-aged children in New York has decided to end all homework assignments, but angry parents have responded by threatening to pull their kids out of the school.

Teachers at P.S. 116 on East 33rd Street, Manhattan, have stopped asking children to work on maths problems and English essays at home, and are instead telling kids to play outside.

The head teacher, Jane Hsu, wrote to parents telling them that studies on the effects of homework in primary school "could not provide any evidence that directly links traditional homework practices with current, or even future, academic success."

She told parents that the negative effects of homework at a young age include: "children's frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities and family time and, sadly for many, loss of interest in learning."

But instead of celebrating the free time with their kids, many parents have responded with frustration of their own, and some have even begun setting their own homework assignments.

"This is their time to learn now, when they have good memory," says Stanley, a 33, whose son studies at the school.

There's little data on how much time primary school students spend working on homework, but studies have failed to find any relationship between time spent of homework during primary school and academic achievement. The debate continues in secondary school though, where there's substantial evidence that homework leads to greater academic achievement. The amount of time secondary school children spend on homework varies hugely around the world, depending on the pressures and expectations of each country.

According to the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and various education research partners, 15-year-olds in Shanghai spend the most amount of time on homework, at an average of 13.8 hours per week. Students in Finland spend just 2.8 hours on homework per week, but manage to still perform well on academic tests, despite the correlation between time spent on homework and success.

British 15-year-olds spend an average of 4.9 hours per week on homework, which is exactly the same as the overall OECD average.

Of course some British students refuse to do any homework, while there are many who spend at least twice the average studying at home.

But how much do you think children should spend working? Although there are many kids who would rather be reading or playing than working on their assignment, it seems that parents have a very different perspective on the matter.