homework around the world

• Countries Who Spend the Most Time Doing Homework

Homework is an important aspect of the education system and is often dreaded by the majority of students all over the world. Although many teachers and educational scholars believe homework improves education performance, many critics and students disagree and believe there is no correlation between homework and improving test scores.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental organization. With headquarters in Paris, the organization was formed for the purpose of stimulating global trade and economic progress among member states. In 2009, the OECD conducted a detailed study to establish the number of hours allocated for doing homework by students around the world and conducted the research in 38 member countries. The test subjects for the study were 15 year old high school students in countries that used PISA exams in their education systems. The results showed that in Shanghai, China the students had the highest number of hours of homework with 13.8 hours per week. Russia followed, where students had an average of 9.7 hours of homework per week. Finland had the least amount of homework hours with 2.8 hours per week, followed closely by South Korea with 2.9 hours. Among all the countries tested, the average homework time was 4.9 hours per week.

Interpretation of the data

Although students from Finland spent the least amount of hours on their homework per week, they performed relatively well on tests which discredits the notion of correlation between the number of hours spent on homework with exam performance. Shanghai teenagers who spent the highest number of hours doing their homework also produced excellent performances in the school tests, while students from some regions such as Macao, Japan, and Singapore increased the score by 17 points per additional hour of homework. The data showed a close relation between the economic backgrounds of students and the number of hours they invested in their homework. Students from affluent backgrounds spent fewer hours doing homework when compared to their less privileged counterparts, most likely due to access to private tutors and homeschooling. In some countries such as Singapore, students from wealthy families invested more time doing their homework than less privileged students and received better results in exams.

Decline in number of hours

Subsequent studies conducted by the OECD in 2012 showed a decrease in the average number hours per week spent by students. Slovakia displayed a drop of four hours per week while Russia declined three hours per week. A few countries including the United States showed no change. The dramatic decline of hours spent doing homework has been attributed to teenager’s increased use of the internet and social media platforms.

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Here's how homework differs around the world

The INSIDER Summary:

• The infographic below shows how education systems around the world differ. • It compares the amount of homework given per week, how much is spent on education, and how many days of school there is per week in countries around the world. • South Korea's education system was ranked number one.

More homework doesn't necessarily mean a better education.

According to the infographic below, created by Ozicare Insurance, the countries that offer the best education systems around the world don't always dole out piles of homework to students.

Students in Italy — whose education system ranked relatively low on the 2014 Pearson review — complete about 8.1 hours of homework per week, while students in South Korea — whose education system ranked number one in the world on the 2014 Pearson review— only spend 2.9 hours on homework weekly.

Keep scrolling to find out more about education across the globe.

Follow INSIDER on Facebook .

Watch: 3 reasons why North and South Korean reunification is unlikely

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Homework Around the World

January 12, 2017 

The verdict is in, and when it comes to homework, it appears that less is more. Research shows that several of the countries scoring top in the world for education, surprisingly dole out the least amount of homework to their students.

South Korea leads the world in education, and on average, students receive less than 3 hours of homework per week.

On the other hand, the United States leads the charge with the most money spent on education per student and students receive a significantly greater amount of homework, but clocks in at number 17 in the world for education. So, why the disparity?

Let’s take a look at this infographic to see how homework and different types of education systems factor into academic rankings around the world.

11 Surprising Homework Statistics, Facts & Data

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

Learn about our Editorial Process

The age-old question of whether homework is good or bad for students is unanswerable because there are so many “ it depends ” factors.

For example, it depends on the age of the child, the type of homework being assigned, and even the child’s needs.

There are also many conflicting reports on whether homework is good or bad. This is a topic that largely relies on data interpretation for the researcher to come to their conclusions.

To cut through some of the fog, below I’ve outlined some great homework statistics that can help us understand the effects of homework on children.

Homework Statistics List

1. 45% of parents think homework is too easy for their children.

A study by the Center for American Progress found that parents are almost twice as likely to believe their children’s homework is too easy than to disagree with that statement.

Here are the figures for math homework:

• 46% of parents think their child’s math homework is too easy.
• 25% of parents think their child’s math homework is not too easy.
• 29% of parents offered no opinion.

Here are the figures for language arts homework:

• 44% of parents think their child’s language arts homework is too easy.
• 28% of parents think their child’s language arts homework is not too easy.
• 28% of parents offered no opinion.

These findings are based on online surveys of 372 parents of school-aged children conducted in 2018.

2. 93% of Fourth Grade Children Worldwide are Assigned Homework

The prestigious worldwide math assessment Trends in International Maths and Science Study (TIMSS) took a survey of worldwide homework trends in 2007. Their study concluded that 93% of fourth-grade children are regularly assigned homework, while just 7% never or rarely have homework assigned.

3. 17% of Teens Regularly Miss Homework due to Lack of High-Speed Internet Access

A 2018 Pew Research poll of 743 US teens found that 17%, or almost 2 in every 5 students, regularly struggled to complete homework because they didn’t have reliable access to the internet.

This figure rose to 25% of Black American teens and 24% of teens whose families have an income of less than $30,000 per year.

4. Parents Spend 6.7 Hours Per Week on their Children’s Homework

A 2018 study of 27,500 parents around the world found that the average amount of time parents spend on homework with their child is 6.7 hours per week. Furthermore, 25% of parents spend more than 7 hours per week on their child’s homework.

American parents spend slightly below average at 6.2 hours per week, while Indian parents spend 12 hours per week and Japanese parents spend 2.6 hours per week.

5. Students in High-Performing High Schools Spend on Average 3.1 Hours per night Doing Homework

A study by Galloway, Conner & Pope (2013) conducted a sample of 4,317 students from 10 high-performing high schools in upper-middle-class California. 

Across these high-performing schools, students self-reported that they did 3.1 hours per night of homework.

Graduates from those schools also ended up going on to college 93% of the time.

6. One to Two Hours is the Optimal Duration for Homework

A 2012 peer-reviewed study in the High School Journal found that students who conducted between one and two hours achieved higher results in tests than any other group.

However, the authors were quick to highlight that this “t is an oversimplification of a much more complex problem.” I’m inclined to agree. The greater variable is likely the quality of the homework than time spent on it.

Nevertheless, one result was unequivocal: that some homework is better than none at all : “students who complete any amount of homework earn higher test scores than their peers who do not complete homework.”

7. 74% of Teens cite Homework as a Source of Stress

A study by the Better Sleep Council found that homework is a source of stress for 74% of students. Only school grades, at 75%, rated higher in the study.

That figure rises for girls, with 80% of girls citing homework as a source of stress.

Similarly, the study by Galloway, Conner & Pope (2013) found that 56% of students cite homework as a “primary stressor” in their lives.

8. US Teens Spend more than 15 Hours per Week on Homework

The same study by the Better Sleep Council also found that US teens spend over 2 hours per school night on homework, and overall this added up to over 15 hours per week.

Surprisingly, 4% of US teens say they do more than 6 hours of homework per night. That’s almost as much homework as there are hours in the school day.

The only activity that teens self-reported as doing more than homework was engaging in electronics, which included using phones, playing video games, and watching TV.

9. The 10-Minute Rule

The National Education Association (USA) endorses the concept of doing 10 minutes of homework per night per grade.

For example, if you are in 3rd grade, you should do 30 minutes of homework per night. If you are in 4th grade, you should do 40 minutes of homework per night.

However, this ‘rule’ appears not to be based in sound research. Nevertheless, it is true that homework benefits (no matter the quality of the homework) will likely wane after 2 hours (120 minutes) per night, which would be the NEA guidelines’ peak in grade 12.

10. 21.9% of Parents are Too Busy for their Children’s Homework

An online poll of nearly 300 parents found that 21.9% are too busy to review their children’s homework. On top of this, 31.6% of parents do not look at their children’s homework because their children do not want their help. For these parents, their children’s unwillingness to accept their support is a key source of frustration.

11. 46.5% of Parents find Homework too Hard

The same online poll of parents of children from grades 1 to 12 also found that many parents struggle to help their children with homework because parents find it confusing themselves. Unfortunately, the study did not ask the age of the students so more data is required here to get a full picture of the issue.

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Interpreting the Data

Unfortunately, homework is one of those topics that can be interpreted by different people pursuing differing agendas. All studies of homework have a wide range of variables, such as:

• What age were the children in the study?
• What was the homework they were assigned?
• What tools were available to them?
• What were the cultural attitudes to homework and how did they impact the study?
• Is the study replicable?

The more questions we ask about the data, the more we realize that it’s hard to come to firm conclusions about the pros and cons of homework .

Furthermore, questions about the opportunity cost of homework remain. Even if homework is good for children’s test scores, is it worthwhile if the children consequently do less exercise or experience more stress?

Thus, this ends up becoming a largely qualitative exercise. If parents and teachers zoom in on an individual child’s needs, they’ll be able to more effectively understand how much homework a child needs as well as the type of homework they should be assigned.

Related: Funny Homework Excuses

The debate over whether homework should be banned will not be resolved with these homework statistics. But, these facts and figures can help you to pursue a position in a school debate on the topic – and with that, I hope your debate goes well and you develop some great debating skills!

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Classroom Wall Decoration Ideas
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 31 Cute & Cozy Play Corner Ideas
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 24 Steiner-Waldorf Classroom Design Ideas
• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 25 Kindergarten Decoration Ideas

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Homework matters depending upon which country you live in.

Chart created by Jill Barshay, data from OECD

For years, researchers have been trying to figure out just how important homework is to student achievement. Back in 2009, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) looked at homework hours around the world and found that there   wasn ’t much of a connection between how much homework students of a particular country do and how well their students score on tests.  Some top achieving countries, like Singapore, assign their students lots of homework. But Finland, for example, succeeds without much homework. On average, Finnish students do only about three hours of homework a week, yet in 2012 they scored sixth highest in the world in reading and 12th highest in math on the OECD’s international test, known as PISA or Programme for International Student Assessment.

This article also appeared here .

But now, five years after the earlier homework study, OECD researchers have drilled down deeper into homework patterns, and they’re finding that homework does play an important role in student achievement within each country . Specifically, they found that homework hours vary by socioeconomic status. Higher income 15-year-olds tend to do more homework than lower income 15-year-olds in almost all of the 38 countries studied by the OECD*. Furthermore, the kids who are doing more homework also tend to get higher test scores.  So the authors conclude that homework is reinforcing the achievement gap between the rich and the poor.

It’s not just that poor kids are more likely to skip their homework, or don’t have a quiet place at home to complete it. It’s also the case that schools serving poor kids often don’t assign as much homework as schools for the rich, especially private schools, explained Francesca Borgonovi, one of the authors of the study, titled “ Does Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education? ”

“When you look within countries at students who are learning in the same educational system and they do more homework, then those students do much better,” said Borgonovi. “There is an advantage for putting extra hours in homework.”

“Does Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education?” OECD

A stark example of this rich-poor homework gap is in Singapore. Students in the top quarter of the socio-economic spectrum spend about 11 hours on homework a week, 3 hours more than low-income students in the bottom quarter of the socio-economic spectrum. Each extra hour of homework was associated with 18 more points on the PISA math exam. So three hours adds up to more than 50 points. That’s huge. To put that in perspective, if you added 50 points to the average U.S. math score, we’d be a top 10 nation instead of number 36.

A key factor is what Borgonovi said about “learning in the same educational system.”  Some school systems are designed to rely on homework, perhaps using independent study as a substitute for what could otherwise be learned in school. “If you are prepared to change the system, that’s great,” said Borgonovi. “But until you do so, if the system is based on homework, then you should do more of it.”

Students in Shanghai, a region in China that now leads the world in PISA test scores, do a whopping 14 hours of homework a week, on average. Wealthier students there do 16 hours. Poorer students do just under 11 hours. Interestingly, however, there was no association between the extra homework hours that the wealthier Shanghai kids put in and their PISA test scores. Perhaps that’s because there are diminishing marginal returns to homework after 11 hours of it!

Indeed, most countries around the world have been reducing the amount of homework assigned. Back in 2003, the average time spent on homework worldwide was about six hours a week. In 2012 that shrank to about five hours.

But the United States has been bucking this trend. The typical 15-year-old here does six hours a week, virtually unchanged from a decade ago and possibly rising. Wealthier students typically do eight hours of homework a week, about three hours more than low income students. But unlike in most countries, where more homework is associated with higher PISA test scores, that’s not the case here.

“For the United States, we don’t have homework reinforcing inequality,” Borgonovi said.

Another team of researchers, Ozkan Eren and Daniel J. Henderson, found mixed results for how effective homework is in the United States, in a 2011 study, “ Are we wasting our children’s time by giving them more homework? ” published in the Economics of Education Review. For math, there were huge benefits for the 25,000 eighth graders they studied. But not for English, science or history. And the math boost was much stronger for white students than for blacks. In other words, when a typical black student did more homework, his math test scores didn’t go up as much.

That’s perhaps a clue that even if you could magically get low-income children in other countries to do as much homework as their high-income peers, as the OECD researchers are suggesting, you might not raise their PISA test scores very much.

Indeed, Borgonovi isn’t really advocating for more homework. She says that high quality teachers and instruction are much more important to student outcomes than homework is. To be sure, some amount of homework is good, Borgonovi said, to teach kids how to plan ahead, set goals and work independently. But more than four hours of homework a week, she said, isn’t very beneficial.

“It would be better to redesign the system to have less homework,” said Borgonovi. “But that is hard to do.”

* The OECD looked at socio-economic status and not income exclusively. So the child of a university professor, for example, might still be in the high income category even if his parents don’t make very much money.

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For years, researchers have been trying to figure out just how important homework is to student achievement. Back in 2009, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) looked at homework hours around the world and found that there wasn ’t much of a connection between how much homework students of a particular country do and how well their students score on tests. Some top achieving countries, like Singapore, assign their students lots of homework. But Finland, for example, succeeds without much homework. On average, Finnish students do only about three hours of homework a week, yet in 2012 they scored sixth highest in the world in reading and 12th highest in math on the OECD’s international test, known as PISA or Programme for International Student Assessment.

But now, five years after the earlier homework study, OECD researchers have drilled down deeper into homework patterns, and they’re finding that homework does play an important role in student achievement within each country . Specifically, they found that homework hours vary by socioeconomic status. Higher income 15-year-olds tend to do more homework than lower income 15-year-olds in almost all of the 38 countries studied by the OECD*. Furthermore, the kids who are doing more homework also tend to get higher test scores. So the authors conclude that homework is reinforcing the achievement gap between the rich and the poor.

It’s not just that poor kids are more likely to skip their homework, or don’t have a quiet place at home to complete it. It’s also the case that schools serving poor kids often don’t assign as much homework as schools for the rich, especially private schools, explained Francesca Borgonovi, one of the authors of the study, titled “ Does Homework Perpetuate Inequities in Education? ”

“When you look within countries at students who are learning in the same educational system and they do more homework, then those students do much better,” said Borgonovi. “There is an advantage for putting extra hours in homework.”

A stark example of this rich-poor homework gap is in Singapore. Students in the top quarter of the socio-economic spectrum spend about 11 hours on homework a week, 3 hours more than low-income students in the bottom quarter of the socio-economic spectrum. Each extra hour of homework was associated with 18 more points on the PISA math exam. So three hours adds up to more than 50 points. That’s huge. To put that in perspective, if you added 50 points to the average U.S. math score, we’d be a top 10 nation instead of number 36.

A key factor is what Borgonovi said about “learning in the same educational system.” Some school systems are designed to rely on homework, perhaps using independent study as a substitute for what could otherwise be learned in school. “If you are prepared to change the system, that’s great,” said Borgonovi. “But until you do so, if the system is based on homework, then you should do more of it.”

Students in Shanghai, a region in China that now leads the world in PISA test scores, do a whopping 14 hours of homework a week, on average. Wealthier students there do 16 hours. Poorer students do just under 11 hours. Interestingly, however, there was no association between the extra homework hours that the wealthier Shanghai kids put in and their PISA test scores. Perhaps that’s because there are diminishing marginal returns to homework after 11 hours of it!

Indeed, most countries around the world have been reducing the amount of homework assigned. Back in 2003, the average time spent on homework worldwide was about six hours a week. In 2012 that shrank to about five hours.

But the United States has been bucking this trend. The typical 15-year-old here does six hours a week, virtually unchanged from a decade ago and possibly rising. Wealthier students typically do eight hours of homework a week, about three hours more than low income students. But unlike in most countries, where more homework is associated with higher PISA test scores, that’s not the case here.

“For the United States, we don’t have homework reinforcing inequality,” Borgonovi said.

Another team of researchers, Ozkan Eren and Daniel J. Henderson, found mixed results for how effective homework is in the United States, in a 2011 study, “ Are we wasting our children’s time by giving them more homework? ” published in the Economics of Education Review. For math, there were huge benefits for the 25,000 eighth graders they studied. But not for English, science or history. And the math boost was much stronger for white students than for blacks. In other words, when a typical black student did more homework, his math test scores didn’t go up as much.

That’s perhaps a clue that even if you could magically get low-income children in other countries to do as much homework as their high-income peers, as the OECD researchers are suggesting, you might not raise their PISA test scores very much.

Indeed, Borgonovi isn’t really advocating for more homework. She says that high quality teachers and instruction are much more important to student outcomes than homework is. To be sure, some amount of homework is good, Borgonovi said, to teach kids how to plan ahead, set goals and work independently. But more than four hours of homework a week, she said, isn’t very beneficial.

“It would be better to redesign the system to have less homework,” said Borgonovi. “But that is hard to do.”

* The OECD looked at socio-economic status and not income exclusively. So the child of a university professor, for example, might still be in the high income category even if his parents don’t make very much money.

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Homework around the world.

H ow much homework did you have to do when you were a kid? I admit I didn’t have much, something that made my school have a bad reputation in my village. However, most studies and education experts seem to agree — there’s hard evidence that homework really does improve how well pupils achieve. Also, kids in both South Korea and Finland, the world’s best education systems, have less than 3 hours of school tasks to do at home per week.

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4 Homework around the world

A survey of more than 27,000 parents in 29 countries found a quarter of parents worldwide spend seven or more hours a week helping their children with homework (Varkey Foundation, 2018).

Parents in India helped the most, spending an average of 12 or more hours each week helping with homework and reading to their children. Parents in Japan spent the least, at about 2.6 hours. Parents in the USA spent 6.2 hours, just below the global average of 6.7 hours.

But the survey also found that children whose parents help a lot with their homework did not perform any better on tests than children who do their homework all by themselves. Educationalists generally agree it's important that parents at least know what their children are working on and how much time it's taking them to complete it. Taking an interest in a child's homework also helps to create a home in which learning is valued.

While a quarter (25%) of parents worldwide spend 7 or more hours a week helping their children with their education, this figure rises to 62% in India, 50% in Vietnam and 39% in Colombia. Parents in richer nations are spending less time, with only 5% spending 7 or more hours a week in Finland, 10% in France and Japan, and 11% in the UK. Parents in lower income economies are more likely to spend significant amounts of time helping their children outside the classroom than those in established economies. The most commonly occurring reason that parents don’t help their children – cited by over half of parents (52%) across the survey – is lack of time.

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The Countries Where Kids Do The Most Homework

Does your kid complain about endless hours of homework? If you live in Italy , those complaints could reach fever-pitch! According to research conducted by the OECD, 15-year old children in Italy have to contend with nearly 9 hours of homework per week - more than anywhere else in the world. Irish children have the second highest after-school workload - just over 7 hours each week. In the United States , about 6.1 hours of a 15-year old's week are sacrificed for the sake of homework. In Asia, children have very little to complain about. Japanese students have to deal with 3.8 hours of homework per week on average while in South Korea, it's just 2.9 hours.

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Which country students study most hours: Top 10 List

Homework is an important aspect of the education system and is often dreaded by the majority of students all over the world. Although many teachers and educational scholars believe homework improves education performance, many critics and students disagree and believe there is no correlation between homework and improving test scores.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental organization that conducts research on various topics related to global trade and economic progress. In 2009, the OECD conducted a detailed study to establish the number of hours allocated for doing homework by students around the world and conducted the research in 38 member countries. The test subjects for the study were 15-year-old high school students in countries that used PISA exams in their education systems.

Top 10 countries with the most homework hours

China: 13.8 hours of homework per week

Shanghai has the most homework hours because of its high academic standards and competitive culture. Students in Shanghai, a region in China that now leads the world in PISA test scores, do a whopping  14 hours of homework a week, on average . Wealthier students there do  16 hours . Poorer students do less, but still outperform students in most other countries.

Shanghai’s education system is based on a rigorous curriculum that covers math, science, Chinese, English, and other subjects. Students also have to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the high school entrance exam and the college entrance exam, which are very difficult and determine their future opportunities.

Russia: 9.7 hours

Russia has the most homework hours because of its traditional and centralized education system that emphasizes academic excellence and discipline. Students in Russia had an average of  9.7 hours of homework per week  in 2009, according to the OECD study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, literature, history, geography, foreign languages, and physical education. They also had to take exams at various

Singapore: 9.4 hours

Singapore has high homework hours because of its competitive and meritocratic education system that aims to prepare students for high-stakes exams and future careers. Students in Singapore said they spent an average of  9.4 hours a week on homework , according to the OECD study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, English, mother tongue, humanities, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE), the O-Level and A-Level exams, and the International Baccalaureate (IB) exams.

Kazakhstan: 8.8 hours

Kazakhstan has high homework hours because of its Soviet legacy and its recent reforms to modernize and internationalize its education system. Students in Kazakhstan had an average of 8.8 hours of homework per week in 2009, according to the OECD study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, Kazakh, Russian, English, history, geography, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the National Testing (NT) that determines their admission to higher education institutions.

Italy: 8.7 hours

Italy has high homework hours because of its traditional and demanding education system that emphasizes academic rigor and discipline. Students in Italy had an average of 8.7 hours of homework per week in 2009, according to the OECD study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, Italian, history, geography, foreign languages, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the middle school exam and the high school exam, which are very challenging and determine their future opportunities.

Ireland: 7.3 hours

Ireland has high homework hours because of its traditional and strict education system that emphasizes academic rigor and discipline. Students in Ireland had an average of  7.3 hours of homework per week  in 2009, according to the OECD study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, English, Irish, history, geography, foreign languages, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the Junior Certificate and the Leaving Certificate, which are very challenging and determine their future opportunities.

Poland: 6.6 hours

Poland has high homework hours because of its traditional and challenging education system that emphasizes academic rigor and discipline. Students in Poland had an average of 6.6 hours of homework per week in 2009, according to the study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, Polish, history, geography, foreign languages, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the lower secondary school exam and the upper secondary school exam, which are very difficult and determine their future opportunities.

Albania: 6.5 hours

Albania has high homework hours because of its post-communist transition and its aspiration to join the European Union. Students in Albania had an average of 6.5 hours of homework per week in 2009, according to the study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, Albanian, history, geography, foreign languages, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the Matura exam that determines their admission to higher education institutions.

Thailand: 6.4 hours

Thailand has high homework hours because of its competitive and exam-oriented education system that aims to prepare students for higher education and global markets. Students in Thailand had an average of 6.4 hours of homework per week in 2009, according to the study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, Thai, English, history, geography, foreign languages, and arts. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET) and the Advanced National Educational Test (A-NET), which are very challenging and determine their future opportunities.

Iran: 6.2 hours

Iran has high homework hours because of its religious and ideological education system that emphasizes academic rigor and moral values. Students in Iran had an average of 6.2 hours of homework per week in 2009, according to the study. They had to study a wide range of subjects, such as math, science, Persian, history, geography, foreign languages, and arts. They also had to study Islamic subjects, such as Quran, theology, jurisprudence, and ethics. They also had to take exams at various stages of their schooling, such as the National High School Diploma (Konkur) that determines their admission to higher education.

The top 10 countries with the most homework hours are China, Russia, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Italy, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Romania and Japan. These countries have an average of more than 7 hours of homework per week for 15-year-old students. The reasons for such high amounts of homework may vary from country to country, but some possible factors are cultural values, academic expectations, curriculum design and teacher training. Homework can have both positive and negative effects on students’ learning outcomes, well-being and motivation. Therefore, it is important to find a balance between quantity and quality of homework that suits the needs and preferences of each student and teacher.

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Students in these countries spend the most time doing homework

Teens in Shanghai spend 14 hours a week on homework, while students in Finland spend only three. And although there  are some educational theorists who argue for  reducing or abolishing homework, more homework seems to be helping students with test scores.

That’s according to a new report on  data the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development collected from countries  and regions that participate in a standardized test  to measure academic achievement for 15-year-olds, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

(It should be noted that while Shanghai scored highest on the 2012 PISA mathematics test, Shanghai is not representative of all of mainland China, and the city received criticism for only testing a subset of 15-year-olds to skew scores higher.)

While there are likely many other factors that contribute to student success, homework assigned can be an indicator of PISA test scores for individuals and individual schools, the report notes. In the individual schools in some regions—Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, and Singapore—that earned the highest math scores  (pdf, pg. 5) in 2012, students saw an increase of 17 score points or more per extra hour of homework.

The report also notes, however, that while individuals may benefit from homework, a school system’s overall performance relies more on other factors, such as instructional quality and how schools are organized.

On average, teachers assign 15-year-olds around world about five hours of homework each week. But those average hours don’t necessarily tell the whole story. Across countries, students spending less time on homework aren’t necessarily studying less—in South Korea, for example, 15-year-olds spend about three hours on homework a week, but they spend an additional 1.4 hours per week with a personal tutor, and 3.6 hours in after-school classes , well above the OECD average for both, according to the OECD survey.

Within countries, the amount of time students spend on homework varies based on family income: Economically advantaged students spend an average of 1.6 hours more on homework per week than economically disadvantaged students. This might be because wealthier students are likely have the resources for a quiet place to study at home, and may get more encouragement and emphasis on their studies from parents, writes Marilyn Achiron , editor for OECD’s Directorate for Education and Skills.

It should also be noted that this list only includes countries that take the PISA exam, which mostly consists of OECD member countries, and it also includes countries that are  OECD partners with “enhanced engagement,”  such as parts of China and Russia.

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Homework Around the World

Homework. Who needs it? Maybe nobody. The amount of homework children do varies wildly from nation to nation. While the effects are not entirely predictable, it seems that leaving kids time to play and learn on their own initiative may reap greater rewards.

In South Korea, which leads the world in education , students receive less than three hours’ worth of assignments each week.

Of course, there are many other factors at play, but it’s worth noting that countries handing out significantly more homework – such as Italy (8.7 hours) and Russia (9.7 hours) – tend to find themselves outside of the top-10 table of educators.

While schools are supposed to be cathedrals of discipline and knowledge , in the broader realm of education there are no hard-and-fast rules.

Each nation’s education system develops in tandem with new international ideas and trends. At the same time, decisions regarding homework and extra-curricular activities must take account of the cultural idiosyncrasies, economics and political context of each country.

What works in one place may not work in another; neither, of course, will each student respond to a system in the same way.

The United State’s average spend per school student is greater than any other country’s. And yet they lag behind as the 17th best education system in the world.

Is it over-crowded classrooms, lack of innovation or lack of diversity that’s letting down the US’s school kids? Or is it their demanding 6.1 hours of homework per week? Maybe it’s a combination of these and other factors. There’s certainly no magic-bullet solution.

All the elements of education need to be tailored for different environments and individuals.

But it’s instructive to consider those education systems that work well and those that don’t – including how much homework they assign their students.

To this end, we’ve developed this new infographic brought to you by Ozicare Life Insurance , which touches on the education systems and academic rankings of several countries.

Add this infographic to your website by copying and pasting the following embed code:

Homework Around the World [Infographic] brought to you by Ozicare Life Insurance

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Homework around the world: How much is too much?

Every child's dream is, it turns out, many New York parents' nightmare. A public school for primary-aged children in New York has decided to end all homework assignments, but angry parents have responded by threatening to pull their kids out of the school.

Teachers at P.S. 116 on East 33rd Street, Manhattan, have stopped asking children to work on maths problems and English essays at home, and are instead telling kids to play outside.

The head teacher, Jane Hsu, wrote to parents telling them that studies on the effects of homework in primary school "could not provide any evidence that directly links traditional homework practices with current, or even future, academic success."

She told parents that the negative effects of homework at a young age include: "children's frustration and exhaustion, lack of time for other activities and family time and, sadly for many, loss of interest in learning."

But instead of celebrating the free time with their kids, many parents have responded with frustration of their own, and some have even begun setting their own homework assignments.

"This is their time to learn now, when they have good memory," says Stanley, a 33, whose son studies at the school.

There's little data on how much time primary school students spend working on homework, but studies have failed to find any relationship between time spent of homework during primary school and academic achievement. The debate continues in secondary school though, where there's substantial evidence that homework leads to greater academic achievement. The amount of time secondary school children spend on homework varies hugely around the world, depending on the pressures and expectations of each country.

According to the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and various education research partners, 15-year-olds in Shanghai spend the most amount of time on homework, at an average of 13.8 hours per week. Students in Finland spend just 2.8 hours on homework per week, but manage to still perform well on academic tests, despite the correlation between time spent on homework and success.

British 15-year-olds spend an average of 4.9 hours per week on homework, which is exactly the same as the overall OECD average.

Of course some British students refuse to do any homework, while there are many who spend at least twice the average studying at home.

But how much do you think children should spend working? Although there are many kids who would rather be reading or playing than working on their assignment, it seems that parents have a very different perspective on the matter.

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Working from home around the world

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Cevat giray aksoy , cevat giray aksoy associate director - european bank for reconstruction and development @cevatgirayaksoy jose maria barrero , jose maria barrero assistant professor of finance - instituto tecnologico autonomo de mexico @jose_mariard nicholas bloom , nicholas bloom professor of economics - stanford university steven j. davis , steven j. davis william h. abbott professor of international business and economics - the university of chicago booth school of business mathias dolls , and mathias dolls deputy director - ifo center for macroeconomics and surveys @mathiasdolls pablo zarate pablo zarate phd student - princeton university and universidad de san andrés @pablozarate98.

September 7, 2022

The paper summarized here is part of the Fall 2022 edition of the  Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) , the leading conference series and journal in economics for timely, cutting-edge research about real-world policy issues. The conference draft of this paper was presented at the Fall 2022 BPEA conference . The final version was published in the Fall 2022 issue by Johns Hopkins University Press.

See the Fall 2022 BPEA event page to watch conference recordings and read conference drafts of all the papers from this edition.  Submit a proposal to present at a future BPEA conference  here .

Read final paper with comments, discussion summary and online appendix here»

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The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a large and lasting shift to working from home among educated workers around the world, finds a new survey presented at the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (BPEA) conference on September 9.

“No other episode in modern history involves such a pronounced and widespread shift in working arrangements in such a compressed time frame,” according to Working from Home Around the World , a paper authored by Cevat Giray Aksoy of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Jose Maria Barrero of the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Nicholas Bloom of Stanford University, Steven J. Davis of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Mathias Dolls of the ifo Institute, and Pablo Zarate of Princeton University.

Workers report that their employers plan an average of 0.7 work-from-home days per week after the pandemic ends. The paper cites several reasons why working from home ultimately will settle at higher levels than suggested by the survey, including separate U.S. data showing a steady rise in work-from-home plans since early 2021 and a surge in patent applications for technologies that support remote work.

The authors’ Global Survey of Working Arrangements went to full-time workers, ages 20-59, who have at least a primary school education. It was fielded online to 37,000 workers across 27 countries in two waves—one in late July and early August 2021, and another in late January and early February 2022.

“This is an area where you should let the market work, and let people and companies find the most suitable arrangements.”

Respondents said they value the option to work from home two or three days a week at 5 percent of pay, on average. People with children younger than 14 place a higher value on the opportunity to work from home—as do women, people with more education, and those with longer commutes. However, even among people with similar demographics and commutes, preferences over whether, and how much, to work from home differ greatly.

These preference differences present employers with important strategic choices, the authors write. By accommodating a range of preferences around working from home, employers can broaden their recruitment pools, reduce turnover, and moderate employee compensation. But, they note, that comes at the cost of greater operational complexity and less in-person communication and collaboration. Returning to five days a week onsite for all employees (as at Tesla) or moving to a remote-first policy (as at Yelp) involve distinct costs and benefits.

The paper cautions against government policies that push employers to offer work from home (as proposed in the Netherlands) and also against policies that make it costlier to work from home (as in Mexico).

“This is an area where you should let the market work, and let people and companies find the most suitable arrangements,” Davis said in an interview with The Brookings Institution. “Prescriptive regulatory approaches are unlikely to satisfy a range of work-from-home preferences in a cost-effective manner.”

Aksoy, Cevat Giray, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Steven J. Davis, Mathias Dolls, and Pablo Zarate. 2022. “Working from Home Around the World.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , Fall. 281-330.

Abraham, Katharine G. 2022. “Comment on ‘Working from Home Around the World’.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , Fall. 331-339.

Glaeser, Edward L. 2022. “Comment on ‘Working from Home Around the World’.” Brookings Papers on Economic Activity , Fall. 340-356.

Discussants

The authors’ Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA) was supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Asociación Mexicana de Cultura AC, the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago, the ifo Institute, King’s College London, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Templeton Foundation. Other than the aforementioned, the authors did not receive financial support from any firm or person for this paper or from any firm or person with a financial or political interest in this paper. They are not currently an officer, director, or board member of any organization with a financial or political interest in this paper. David Skidmore authored the summary language for this paper. Becca Portman assisted with data visualization.

Labor & Unemployment

Economic Studies

Brookings Papers on Economic Activity

February 28, 2023

Kevin Kolben

February 27, 2023

• #academic rankings
• #Homework Around The World Infographic
• #Homework Infographic

Homework Around The World Infographic

The amount of homework children do varies wildly from nation to nation. More homework doesn't necessarily mean a better education. According to the Homework Around The World Infographic, created by Ozicare Life Insurance , the countries that offer the best education systems around the world don't always dole out piles of homework to students. While the effects are not entirely predictable, it seems that leaving kids time to play and learn on their own initiative may reap greater rewards. In South Korea, which leads the world in education, students receive less than three hours’ worth of assignments each week.

Of course, there are many other factors at play, but it’s worth noting that countries handing out significantly more homework – such as Italy (8.7 hours) and Russia (9.7 hours) – tend to find themselves outside of the top-10 table of educators. While schools are supposed to be cathedrals of discipline and knowledge, in the broader realm of education there are no hard-and-fast rules.

Each nation’s education system develops in tandem with new international ideas and trends. At the same time, decisions regarding homework and extra-curricular activities must take account of the cultural idiosyncrasies, economics and political context of each country. What works in one place may not work in another; neither, of course, will each student respond to a system in the same way.

The United State’s average spend per school student is greater than any other country’s. And yet they lag behind as the 17th best education system in the world. Is it over-crowded classrooms, lack of innovation or lack of diversity that’s letting down the US’s school kids? Or is it their demanding 6.1 hours of homework per week? Maybe it’s a combination of these and other factors. There’s certainly no magic-bullet solution.

All the elements of education need to be tailored for different environments and individuals. But it’s instructive to consider those education systems that work well and those that don’t – including how much homework they assign their students.

• How Homework Affects Students Infographic
• Pros and Cons of Homework Infographic
• 5 Ways to Make Homework Fun for Kids Infographic

Homework in a work-from-home world

• Post author: The CTTL
• Post published: April 30, 2020
• Post category: Hybrid Learning / Teaching Strategies

What does homework look like when we are always at home? It cannot be the same. And it has to be more important than ever as work at home is all we have right now. So how can we use research insights to tweak our homework practice? 

Just posting a list of assignments for students to complete each week is a dubious approach to teaching. The wonderfully titled landmark paper, Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work , has a must-read 128 word abstract that begins, “Evidence for the superiority of guided instruction is explained…” 

We still need to guide instruction, even though this is now harder. The role homework plays will depend on our ability to guide instruction. Hence this table has three columns: one for pre-lockdown teaching, the second if all you have is the ability to post asynchronously, the third if you can also have synchronous online class. We hope this format makes sense to you.

We created this table as part of a supplemental resource for an exciting project, coming to you soon. We have put together a bundle of Neuroteach Global courses that we think would be most supportive of distance learning and teaching. Neuroteach Global is the CTTL’s solution to high quality research informed professional development. How can we use the science of teaching and learning to help teachers in these challenging times? And how can we get it into their hands in a digestible, usable, affordable way? It is about 8 hours of rich, highly interactive pd brought to you on the device of your choice in a story-based microcourse format. More details very soon. In the meantime, if you want to know more, please email: [email protected] .

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A WFH ‘culture war’ has broken out across Europe, with the U.K. leading the charge as the most WFH-friendly country, while France lags behind

Sometime between March 2020 and the end of 2021, “office workers” ceased to be a thing.

“Offices” didn’t, of course, and nor did the kind of work that people typically did in offices before the pandemic. But the inherent connection between the two was irrevocably severed, as working from home became first a necessity, and then forever afterward a possibility. 

Now, WFH has become a point of contention around the world, as workers clash with management over where people work and who gets to choose. As professor Mark Mortensen at business school Insead tells Fortune , “There is a culture war happening right now.”

Like most wars, the struggle over remote and hybrid working has multiple fronts. So where in Europe is WFH winning?

What does the data say?

The U.K. leads Europe in the home-working league table, according to the Global Survey of Working Arrangements (G-SWA) , an authoritative annual study by leading economists into the behaviors and preferences of over 40,000 workers in 34 countries.

In fact, the average British employee with a graduate education spends twice as much time working remotely as their French counterparts—and three times more than those who are Greek. Countries that have actively targeted remote working foreign “digital nomads,” like Portugal and Italy, meanwhile, have middling levels.

Days working remotely per week, in selected European countries:

• U.K. 1.8 (the same as the U.S.)
• Germany 1.5
• Netherlands/Italy/Spain/Sweden 1.2 (the same as the European average)
• Portugal 1.0
• Denmark 0.8

Source: G-SWA 2023

G-SWA’s latest data was from the spring of 2023, but the pattern seems to be holding.

According to LinkedIn data prepared for Fortune , 41% of U.K. job postings on its platform were for hybrid roles in April 2024, compared with 32% for the wider Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region.

Britain also had the highest proportion of remote-only roles in Europe, at 9%—three times higher than in France and the Netherlands, which was the pre-pandemic leader in remote working.

Perhaps the most compelling indicator is transport usage figures. Analysis by the U.K. Department for Transport found that between May and June 2024, London Underground usage hit only between 75% and 87% of 2019 levels, with Mondays and Fridays consistently far below pre-pandemic averages.

For comparison, according to the Global Cities Survey 2024 , Paris Rail had returned to 91% of pre-pandemic usership by the second quarter of 2023.

Various factors affect remote and hybrid working rates, including Wi-Fi connectivity, divergent lockdown experiences, and the sector mix in different countries. Put simply, manufacturing and retail don’t lend themselves to WFH, while coding and publishing do.

The U.K. economy is more skewed toward services than most of its European neighbors, particularly to finance and tech, so structurally you’d expect to see more hybrid and remote working there.

But there’s another, arguably more important factor, says Insead’s Mortensen: a national culture of individualism. 

“The more individualistic a country is, the more people like and push for remote and hybrid working,” he says, pointing to high levels of individualism in countries like the U.K. and the Netherlands, and much lower levels in Asian countries like Japan, China, and South Korea, where work-from-home levels are also far lower.

“That’s another reason that the U.S. tends to be very big on it,” Mortensen adds.

In fact, analysis by the international economists behind the G-SWA suggests that two-thirds of the variance between countries can be explained by their level of collectivism versus individualism.

It certainly seems to play out in what people in different countries say about how willing they are to go along with return-to-office orders. Recruiter Randstad’s 2024 Work Monitor , which surveyed 35,000 workers globally, found that Brits were significantly more attached to at-home working than their peers on the continent.

When asked whether they would quit if their employer tried to force them to work from the office more, 55% of U.K. respondents said yes, compared with only 23% to 26% for French, German, Italian, and Dutch respondents; 29% of Spaniards; and 30% of Swedes.

Does it matter?

Demand for flexible working arrangements remains widespread, with employees in countries that have low WFH levels, like Greece and Turkey, expressing a desire to work at home comparable to their peers in the U.K.

In the Netherlands, meanwhile, remote-job applications account for a share of total applications five times higher than the share of listings for jobs that are remote.

There are no signs of this preference changing, at least yet. “Our data shows professionals are not willing to give up the flexibility and work-life balance that comes with remote and hybrid roles, with competition for these jobs at a high,” says LinkedIn career expert Charlotte Davies.

If employee preference for flexible working persists, you might expect to see more concessions from companies competing for top talent, particularly where WFH is currently less entrenched.

This is particularly the case if legislation or trade union policy entrenches the right to work at home.

Mortensen, though, isn’t convinced. “It drives me crazy when people using [pandemic era] data and saying, Well, it worked during COVID, which was a giant existential dread, and people didn’t have any other option…The company not falling apart in two years doesn’t mean that remote working is the best way you can organize.”

He points to what companies like Microsoft and Meta are finding about the “degradation of social relationships” from people not working together face to face, the lack of “enculturation” of new starters, and the decline in creativity and collaboration that has accompanied higher levels of home working.

“We know that things that are beneficial for organizations are often beneficial for individuals. People feel engaged and motivated by doing something new and innovative, so maybe [being in the office] is not just good for the company, it’s good for me too,” Mortensen says.

In other words, if too much time at home hurts performance—and for that matter career progression and job security—it will cease to look all that appealing to employees.

Ultimately, we’re still dealing with relatively new arrangements that have unknown long-term impacts. The situation is still evolving, as is our understanding of how to manage it as employers, and how we feel about it as employees—and that applies wherever you live.

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