Less homework means children move more and go to bed earlier, study suggests

Reducing the amount of homework children are given could make them more physically active and get more sleep, a new study suggests.

A trial of pupils in China found that cutting homework while also reducing screentime encouraged them to play outdoors and go to bed earlier.

As part of the scheme online gaming companies were forced to limit children to three hours a week, while at the same time teachers were instructed to reduce the amount of homework they set, and tutoring businesses were restricted in the amount of lessons they could run.

Bai Li, a lecturer in behavioural science at Bristol University’s School for Policy Studies, who led the study, said: “The results are exciting as this type of regulatory intervention across multiple settings has never been tried before.”

Teenagers in China spend more time on homework than anywhere else in the world, at 14 hours a week, according to a report from the OECD. British children do about five hours.

The team from Bristol University analysed data from more than 7,000 primary and secondary school students in 2020 and 2021 from the Guangxi province in southern China.

Primary school pupils could not be set more than 60 minutes of homework a day, and secondary school pupils aged up to 15 not more than 90 minutes. Tutoring companies were banned from offering sessions in school holidays or at weekends, could not set exams for preschool, primary or middle school children, and could not publish rankings.

The team found that the children in the study aged nine to 18 spent on average 45 minutes less each day being sedentary.

Students were also shown to be 20 per cent more likely to meet the overall screen time recommendation of less than two hours daily after the regulations were introduced.

Bai Li said that both in China and the UK, parents often find it difficult to set and impose their own rules on things like screen time.

She said: “We know that leaving it to parents doesn’t work”, adding that it is easier for parents when they can tell their children that any more screen time would be against the law.

She added: “With these regulatory measures [in China], the onus has shifted to online gaming companies, schools and private tutoring companies to comply. This very different approach appears to be more effective, because it is aimed at improving the environment in which children and adolescents live.”

The results were published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity.

The researchers told The Times they are exploring whether similar rules could be feasible in the UK, but stressed that the Chinese template would have to be modified.