Qld: Homework too hard? Beattie announces review

AAP General News (Australia)
08-01-2004
Qld: Homework too hard? Beattie announces review

BRISBANE, Aug 1 AAP - Queensland Premier Peter Beattie today called for a statewide
review into homework allocations after parental claims that children were doing too much.

He said Education Queensland would conduct the review with the aim of creating a streamlined
statewide approach to after-school work.

However, Mr Beattie warned students not to become too excited because homework was
here to stay - it would just be the type and quantity that were up for review.

"We're not talking about getting rid of homework, we're talking about getting a statewide
approach which doesn't exist at the moment," Mr Beattie said.

He said the level of homework allocated to students was decided by teachers and principals
at a school level.

Mr Beattie said Queensland needed a state-wide system that systematically built up
young people's capabilities and skills.

"Not just in an educational sense, we are concentrating on turning Queensland into
the Smart State, but in life skills as well," he said.

Mr Beattie said the review would also discover if homework really was eating too far
into family time, as some parents believed.

"I know there are good and bad sides to it - what we have to do is get the balance
right," he said.

Mr Beattie said the review would be included in a radical school education overhaul
which included the introduction of a full-time preparatory year by 2007 and a requirement
from 2006 that people aged under 17 be either learning or earning.

AAP am/bes/jlw

KEYWORD: HOMEWORK

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