Whether you’re eight or 18, homework is part of your school day. But should it be? And how much should children be tasked to do? And what is the point?

Irish Times parenting columnist Jen Hogan is clear: primary-school children should not be given homework, ever. She tells In the News that years of parenting and research informs her firm view.

Irish Times education editor Carl O’Brien says that while homework is a heavily researched area in other countries, Ireland is lagging behind when it comes to understanding how much homework Irish children are doing and in measuring the benefit – or the harm.

Now, says O’Brien, Maynooth University has produced a study that shows that 15 minutes is the optimum time for homework – in each subject – for secondary-school pupils.

Produced by Aideen Finnegan and John Casey. Presented by Bernice Harrison.

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Chinese premier Xi Jinping has a plan to reshape the global security order. His diplomatic initiative is a challenge to the United States-led “rules-based international order” that has dominated since the end of the second World War.

Xi’s Global Security Initiative (GSI) has been gathering support from the Global South. Last month, 53 African leaders met in Beijing and supported the doctrine.

The GSI is built on six commitments which include “abiding by the UN charter” and “resolving disputes through dialogue”. But the implications of the doctrine are more significant than these phrases suggest.

Beijing correspondent Denis Staunton tells In the News how the West lost its influence with the Global South, what China’s “multipolar world” will look like and where Ireland fits in.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

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Prospective home purchasers are losing out to cash buyers – mostly overseas investors – on apartments with defects, ranging from minor issues to hazardous faults, because banks will not risk lending to people so they can buy them.

Irish Times journalist Jade Wilson tells In the News about her investigation which found that mortgage-approved buyers are unable to buy second-hand apartments that require remediation works as banks are unwilling to lend on them due to uncertainty around a Government scheme to fix them.

The Government has promised to introduce a €2.5 billion remediation scheme to fix up to 100,000 defective Celtic Tiger-era apartment blocks - many of the developers who built these projects are no longer in business - so that ultimately, the taxpayer is on the hook for the cost.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.