Malaysian students are being robbed of their childhood by spending an average of 3.8 hours a day doing homework, said a group of Australian principals and researchers.

According to a Bernama report today, leading adolescent psychologist Michael Carr-Gregg said homework should be scrapped for children up to Year 9 (Form Two) because it also causes arguments in families and does nothing to improve their education.

His views were backed by the Victorian Association of State Secondary Principals and the Australian Council for Educational Research.

The average hours of homework each day in other countries are Australia (2), Canada (2.2), Iran (4), Italy (3.6), Japan (1.7), New Zealand (2), Russia (3.1), Singapore (3.5) and United States (2.1).

Carr-Gregg said Malaysian students were "snowed under" by meaningless homework that leads to psychological torment and this issue was bigger than bullying in schools.

Homework led to poor self-esteem, depression and eating disorders, he said.

"Mental health can suffer due to endless hours in front of the computer, late nights spent studying and restrictive exercise due to time constraints," he added.

Carr-Gregg said students up to Year 9 should do no homework and from Year 10 to 12 they should do a maximum of 2.5 hours a day.

Too much pressure

Agreeing with this view was the president of the Victorian Secondary Principals Association, Andrew Blair.

"We put too much pressure on students for the wrong reasons. What amazing, inherent benefit is there in working at home?" he was quoted as saying by the Herald Sun newspaper.

Meanwhile, senior research fellow with the Australian Council for Educational Research, Sue Thomson, said there was no evidence that homework improved achievement.

"Children should be able to get through the curriculum at school," she said.

The council's research reveals Year 8 and 9 students do an average of two hours of homework a day, compared with the international average of 2.8 hours.

However, analysis of homework hours and achievement showed countries in which students did the most homework did not necessarily perform best.

Parents Victoria president Gail McHardy said thousands of parents wanted to see homework ditched or reduced, but equal numbers felt there should be more.

"Students want to know the purpose and the relevance of the topics set," she said.

Victorian Primary Principals Association president Fred Ackerman said: "If kids never did homework again it would not be the end of the world."

"Some schools fall into the trap of setting homework because of parental expectations," Footscray City College principal Carolyn Woodhouse said.