Most kids we know would rather be doing anything besides homework after they get home from a long day at school. Instead, many end up doing PR (pekerjaan rumah or homework) and don’t have time for much else until the cycle repeats itself the next day. We know how frustrating that can be because we’ve been there ourselves.
But life after school could’ve been very different if we had grown up under the rule of an awesome, progressive thinking leader like Dedi Mulyadi, the regent of Purwakarta, West Java.
On Monday, Dedi issued a circular to all public schools in his regency prohibiting teachers to issue students homework that would be considered academic.
Instead, he wants students to be assigned homework that is more in line with their hobbies and interests in order to stimulate their creativity.
“It’s clear that [students’] homework must be in line with their interests. If the student’s hobby is to make sambal, then direct them so that they can make sambal well. Kids who like poems should write poems,” Dedi said, as quoted by Liputan 6.
The academic homework prohibition affects all public primary to high schools in the regency, undoubtedly to the elated cheers of the students. Dedi has also urged private schools in the regency to follow suit.
We’re no education experts so we don’t know the merits or pitfalls to erasing academic homework. But one must look at Finland as proof that an education system that rarely burdens children with homework can lead to spectacular results (Finland consistently ranks among the countries with the best education systems in the world).
