Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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The first point to make is that I respect the view of the President. It is very important that he should have the opportunity to make his own observations. I will not comment on those observations specifically. In general, it is a matter for the boards of management of schools to devise their homework policy. From my own experience, in the vast majority of schools, homework begins in the school, with students possibly being invited to complete the work at home. There is a place for that because it is the one instance in which students have an opportunity for independent learning and to test whether they fully understand what they were taught in school on a given day. If they are not clear and they do not understand, they can ask for it to be explained in school the next day. I want to be clear that the opportunity to develop and devise a homework policy rests entirely with the schools themselves.