Congress approved yesterday a non-law proposal that urges the Government to create a working group consisting of parents, teachers and the educational community, which regulate homework. A measure that many parents have been waiting for a long time, but others consider unnecessary.
Of course, that the duties have reached the Congress of Deputies has generated a wide debate, not already focused on being in favor or against the duties, but on whether school duties must be regulated by law.
In favor of regulating them
It is not new that the duties are among the concerns of Spanish parents, considering that Spanish children are among the most pressured by the duties, according to the WHO, with an average of 6.5 hours a week dedicated to these tasks, when the European average is 4.9 hours, according to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).
It is clear that the results of so many hours dedicated to duties do not bear the desired results, taking into account that the data of the last PISA 2015 report, Spain has hardly moved from its position since our country began to participate in this evaluation.
The socialist deputy María Luz Martínez, promoter of the debate, said in Congress that "there are children who can spend up to five hours with these activities that, in addition," in many cases are repetitive, tedious and without educational objectives or purposes, "some of the good reasons why children shouldn't have homework.
The duties not only overwhelm children, subtracting time from play and family sharing, as the Ikea campaign "Let's save dinner" (to which a high school teacher has responded in a letter, points out, but there are those who go beyond ensuring that we are destroying their childhood and promoting social inequalities and dropping out of school.
Last November, the Spanish Confederation of Associations of Parents of Students (CEAPA) called for a duty strike during the weekends that positioned teachers and parents both for and against the initiative. And the key is precisely that, it is very difficult to get a consensus on which all parties agree.
By regulating them, excessive duties would end that put children (and their families) to the limit of their possibilities, many times to avoid disabling teachers.
Against regulating them
The main criticisms focus on the intrusion of politics in the educational field, something they consider should be teacher competence.
Like calling the strike, it is believed to be a form of disallow them as professionals, although many times they themselves recognize that they are pressured by a curriculum program full of content that they must fulfill at all costs.
Another point against regulating them is that when legislating the Primary duties, there would be "a clash between Primary and Secondary for students it could reverse a great stress, because the students would not be accustomed to work outside the classroom. "
We will see what the matter is, how they will be regulated and how the new measures will be implemented. What is evident is that a State Pact that modernizes the education system with motivating and proportionate activities with which children feel excited to learn.
