French President François Hollande set to end homework, will help ‘disadvantaged families’
French President François Hollande has said he will end homework as part of a series of reforms to overhaul the country’s education system.
Hollande proclaims that he doesn’t think it is fair that some kids get help from their parents at home while children who come from disadvantaged families don’t.
Hollande’s reform plans include increasing the number of teachers, moving the school week from four days to 4 1/2 days, overhauling the curriculum and taking steps to cut down on absenteeism.
“Education is priority,” Hollande was quoted as saying by France24.com at Paris’s Sorbonne University last week. “An education program is, by definition, a societal program. Work should be done at school, rather than at home,” as a way to ensure that students who have no help at home are not disadvantaged.
As Education Minister Vincent Peillon told Le Monde, the state needs to “support all students in their personal work, rather than abandon them to their private resources, including financial, as is too often the case today.”
“It’s completely unrealistic,” Valérie Marty, the president of France’s national parents’ organization, told the Associated Press. “They have to figure out who will take care of the children after school, who will finance it.”