A survey of the Committee on Home-School Co-operation finds primary school students in Hong Kong are assigned six pieces of homework every day on average.

Junior primary students spent close to two hours every day on their assignments while their senior counterparts spent about one-and-a-half hours.

There is no positive correlation between students' time spent on homework and their academic achievement. Students with better academic achievement tended to spend less time on homework.

The committee commissioned the Hong Kong Baptist University to conduct the 'Parental Involvement in Homework of Primary School Students' research between February and June to examine the perception and expectation of functions of homework on the part of primary school students, their parents and teachers.

The research covered 2,442 students, 1,499 parents and 327 teachers from 72 classes of 36 participating schools. Focus groups and individual interviews were conducted, and quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire.

The findings show the following:

* most primary school students choose their parents as their preferred source of support for homework;

* both parents and teachers recognise the importance of parental support in children's homework;

* when students feel their parents are capable of assisting them with their homework, they have positive views on the functions of homework;

* parents and teachers agree homework involving analytical thinking is the most important;

* there is disparity between parents' and teachers' expectations: parents expect homework to match their children's capability, while teachers believe homework should be pitched at a suitable level, with part of the assignment to entail the students' further exploration;

* parental involvement depends on the different stages of their children's development, with direct support for junior primary students and encouragement for seniors to do homework independently.

Commenting on the findings, the committee chairman Professor Wong Po-choi said homework is a means to help consolidate learning, build up children's confidence and their sense of responsibility.

Professor Wong said excessive and difficult homework is undesirable. It renders doing homework meaningless because parents or private tutors may wind up completing the homework on behalf of the children.

In particular, themes of project learning should not be too vague nor too abstract to avoid leaving students helpless and having to resort to their parents to finish the projects for them, he added.

Professor Wong said homework of moderate difficulty could be a challenge to students and stimulate them to think in a more in-depth manner.

Instead of providing instant answers to their children when they encounter problems, parents should help them understand the problems and think about how to find out the solutions themselves. In addition, parents should also encourage their children to approach their teachers and classmates for assistance.

He said parents should not expect their children to complete homework without making mistakes. If schools can help parents have a better understanding of what is expected of their children's homework, including the time required, parents will not exert undue stress on their children.