The Sunday Times November 27 2016 has run an article on how Korean schools and teaching systems compare with those in Wales and the rest of the UK. The Koreans, Chinese, and Singaporeans are top of the international league tables. In the UK another report says that spelling achievement is getting lower (despite some Asian pupils scoring high in school spelling competitions). So what are the Asians in Asia doing differently and better. School hours are long, so is homework and extra tuition. Parents are encouraging hard work. Suicide On the downside, some pupils are committing suicide - highest cause of death in their age group. Statistics I ran the statistics on suicide past my family's statistics expert. He says 1 Compare the rates in Korea and Wales 2 Suicide is higher probably in many countries because youngsters don't die of old age diseases, nor even road accidents since they are too young to drive and are kept busy in the evenings and weekends doing homework. 3 The answer is not less homework but more counselling for stress. (Suicide prevention societies and others suggest helplines, a tutor review each term, meditation etc.) Country Comparisons The article on Korea suggests more homework is better. But other articles in other media on websites (BBC, Daily Mail?)said that in Finland they have less homework at primary school. 1 This study on Finland was on primary school but the study on Korean pupils was not on primary school but on secondary school. 2 Which is cause and which is effect? Pupils in Finland start school and learning to read in school later but they achieve well in education. Does the late start at school cause them to learn quicker? Or does it mean that a) Home schooling works better for the under sevens. b) Having educated parents is more important than homework. Maybe homework and early learning at school is only essential to compensate, for immigrants and the poorly educated when parents are not setting homework and teaching their children. Since the UK has large numbers of immigrants, they might need the extra help of school supervision if the parents don't speak English and can't teach them to read in the language of their country of residence and later their school. Weekend Coaching Weekend coaching is effective. At a school in Singapore several pupils, mainly those whose parents spoke English as a second language or did not speak English at home, had failed English language at the mock exam. At Crescent School a programme was run with about four teachers running group motivation talks (mainly from me), followed by one to one corrections of last week's homework and setting next weeks. I remember how delighted I was to hear that every pupil had passed their final exam (except one who was in hospital). School Course Preparation I have also prepared a ten lesson (and optional twenty lesson) speech course for teachers to coach pupils in preparation at a school for their open day which included visits from parents and government ministers. Summary To sum up, I feel the evidence shows from many sources that extra time and encouragement from parents and teachers helps pupils. Angela Lansbury, teacher of English O level, A level, English as a second language and English as a foreign language. Individual lessons, lessons by Skype, small group lessons, workshops for Toastmasters.