Last year, the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) found that on average 15-year-old students spend almost five hours a week doing homework. However, there are significant differences between countries. At the bottom of the scale, students in Finland reported studying for less than three hours while students in the Russian Federation were studying around 10.
Research into the benefits of homework is not conclusive. The Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit suggests that homework has a moderate impact in secondary schools. Setting homework that is short and focused is more effective than homework that is routinely set.
The Teaching and Learning Toolkit is less positive about homework in primary schools. At a younger age it suggests that the setting of homework only has low impact. However, its does note that schools where pupils do homework tend to perform better than schools where pupils don't. Which leads to which is not clear.
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