Homework relief in the works for school students

The Office of Basic Education Commission (Obec) has drawn up guidelines on how teachers can reduce home assignments. 
Obec secretary-general Boonrux Yodpheth said on Wednesday that teachers who were in charge of the same class, for example, should be able to plan together as to how to evaluate their students based on the same homework. 

“Joint planning will enable such an evaluation,” he said. 
Boonrux also emphasised that home assignments should be appropriate to students’ age.
“When giving homework, teachers should also take into account the time and resources required,” he said.
He said students in Prathom 1-3 levels should spend just 30 to 60 minutes on homework each day; those in Prathom 4-6 classes should spend 60 to 90 minutes a day, while Mathayom or secondary students should spend no more than two hours a day on homework. 
Boonrux said the prime minister had nudged the Education Ministry to draw up guidelines to reduce the homework burden after hearing accounts of how children were weighed down by their work load.
“Social media are rife with comments on how the huge homework load has adversely affected children’s lives, causing stress, depriving them of time to develop other skills or to spend time with their family,” he said. 
Boonrux believed the integrated homework approach should be easy to implement for teachers at small schools where there were just a few teachers in charge. 
“At bigger schools, teachers should try to work together in implementing the homework-reduction guidelines introduced by Obec,” he said. 
He added that his agency would monitor progress on how the guidelines were being followed.