diff --git a/defaults/main.yml b/defaults/main.yml
index 3974485154f4564f72e988076fef007388b5d9cd..bb49d945b78a3a020a39cc90480fa2355c13816e 100644
--- a/defaults/main.yml
+++ b/defaults/main.yml
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ php_session_gc_divisor: '1000'
 php_session_gc_maxlifetime: '1440'
 php_short_open_tag: 'Off'
 php_upload_max_filesize: '2M'
+php_zend_assertions: '0'
 
 # apc.ini
 apc_rfc1867: '1'
diff --git a/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini b/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini
index c5118129e2e0965be7703054ac0bf36e809d266f..9d27b99b0218efe22bc8e0e7a3992cb552583dd3 100644
--- a/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini
+++ b/templates/etc-php5-apache2-php.ini
@@ -384,6 +384,8 @@ zend.enable_gc = On
 ; Default: ""
 ;zend.script_encoding =
 
+zend.assertions = {{ php_zend_assertions }}
+
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
 ; Miscellaneous ;
 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;