All Homework, No Play: Summer Vacation Tasks Pile Up for Japanese Elementary School Students

When the education company Benesse asked members of its elementary school students’ correspondence course in Japan what kind of summer vacation homework they had been given, more than 76% said “writing kanji and other Japanese language tasks” and a similar percentage answered “arithmetic and other math problems.” This was followed by “research projects and crafts” with 62%. More than 50% were also assigned longstanding classic tasks like “diaries and picture diaries” along with “book reports.” Most children will certainly be busy.

When the participating children were asked which homework was fun and which was difficult, the most enjoyable by far was “research projects and crafts,” but it also came second for being the most difficult. In the section of the survey aimed at parents, approximately 80% said that they gave some form of help to their children with their research projects.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)