By Hanover, Germany correspondent Dirk Heede

The Oberlandesgericht Niedersachsen (Supreme Court of Saxony) has ruled school homework illegal following a complaint by the secondary school student body Oberschülerhausaufgabenausschuß Niedersachsen (OberNieder).

According to the complaint; homework was only necessary because teachers were unable to achieve the required learning targets during school hours and that homeworks were only covering up the teachers’ incompetence.

OberNieder speaker Rita Denkenitt said that students are happy to come to school to learn but refused to make up for the shortfall in teaching by teachers; spending long hours every evening decrypting notes and performing mundane, repetitive tasks which stifled individual thought and creativity. All while making students too tired to be attentative in school the next morning.

Both of the region’s teachers’ unions, the Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (GEW) and the Verband Bildung und Erziehung (VBE) has announced that they’ll appeal the decision after Easter, possibly taking it to a higher, federal court. If appeals fail, then the ruling may be applied in other States of the Republic.

Australian legal firm Slater & Gordon is setting up a hotline for Australians who may have studied in Germany after 1948 and forced to do homework. Victims may be eligible for compensation even if they cannot produce any homework. Indeed, those who refused to take part in the illegal activity and were subsequently punished, may be eligible to even greater compensation.