Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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Many of the questions I intended to ask have already been raised. Has any research been done on the weight of the schoolbags relative to the level of homework that is given? Children get far too much homework and I wonder about the benefits of it. The homework might be limited to a certain period of time and schools might take up that practice. I am regularly told by my children's school that homework should take no more than 30 minutes to complete, but it takes far longer than that. If the homework given was limited to one or two subjects per night, that would reduce the number of books a child would have to take home. Has any research been done on schools that have after-school homework clubs or study clubs, where children leave all their books in the school, and on the possible benefits of that?

I would make two points. I would take issue with the recommendation about parents buying lightweight backpacks. One does not often have a choice. One has to buy whatever backpack the books fit into. Even at junior infants level, many of the smaller bags one would think would suit a junior infants child do not because the books do not fit into them. In terms of children bringing home only the books they need, that is the problem. They have to bring home too many books because of the level of homework. If there was a system whereby the amount of homework was limited, that would limit the number of books that would have to be brought home.

I may be being unfair to schools but in my experience I do not know of any school that is proactively trying to address this issue. I regularly tell my children to ask the teacher the books they can leave out of the bag or else the bag will not be brought to school. As parents, we have to say that there is no way our children are going to school carrying bags of that weight. It is crazy. I have a five year old and a ten year old. They are not secondary school children but I experience that every almost morning. This is good work in terms of trying to educate parents but I do not know any parents who are not aware of the issue because they must feel the weight of the bags. However, parents need to put their foot down, address the issue with the schools and tell them their children will not carry bags with that level of weight and that some compromise has to be found. Something should be done about the level of homework that is given. That is a key factor in the weight of the books bring brought home every day.