The city’s education agency said it wanted the students to have more quality time with families and learn from society.

“We will issue a circular on the homework ban soon,” Blitar Education Agency head M. Sidik said on Monday as quoted by kompas.com.

“The students need to learn from society. Nowadays, many students cannot tell the difference between a salam leaf and turmeric leaf. They can only learn that in their family environment.”

He added that with the policy, students were expected to get involved in positive activities outside school hours such as cooking.

The administration had previously encouraged the principals of junior high schools in the city to do away with homework ever since the city implemented the five-day school policy last year. However, many teachers ignored the call.

Blitar is not the first to ban homework. In 2016, the Purwakarta administration in West Java issued a similar policy.

Purwakarta Regent Dedi Mulyadi said home assignments should be replaced with non-academic activities that were in line with students’ interests.

“I noticed a lot of students were depressed because they were burdened by a lot of homework,” Dedi said as quoted by Antara.