If you think your kid has a lot of homework, think again. In 2014, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted a study and found that schools in Shanghai, China gave kids the most homework in the world. On average, their students spent 14 hours per week on homework.
This is significant considering Canadian and American kids only spent about six hours per week on after-school assignments, while kids in other countries, such as Finland and Korea, reportedly spent less than three.
To get their findings, researchers looked at 15-year-olds from 38 countries. Besides China, Russia also topped the list of countries that gave the most homework, with their students spending about 10 hours per week on extra work. Italy, Ireland, Poland and Spain also gave their students over seven hours of at-home assignments per week.
So does more homework equal smarter kids? Not necessarily. Korea and Finland give their students the least amount of homework per week and their education systems are the top in the world.
In 2014, South Korea’s education system ranked at number one, while Finland ranked at number five. This year, Finland was also named number one in literacy, despite its “more play, less work” attitude towards education.
Additionally, some studies have shown that too much homework can be harmful to kids. Specifically, in 2014, 56 per cent of U.S. students cited homework as their number one cause of stress. This triggered a number of other negative effects in kids as well.
“We found a clear connection between the students' stress and physical impacts -- migraines, ulcers and other stomach problems, sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and weight loss,” Denise Pope, a lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Education, told CNN in regards to the study.
Despite these findings, the debate over whether homework is good or bad is ongoing among parents. Watch the video above to hear more.
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