I doubt the 9am-3pm school day is working for anyone – except those parents lucky enough to have a job that finishes around 2:30pm and pays well.
The difficult parental collision is that most schools run on a six-hour day – some throwback idea that assumes one parent is at home.
Most full-time jobs in Australia require staff to be in the office during business hours for around 38 hours a week – and the rest.
A new US report has recommended creating a 9-to-5 approach to schooling, and perhaps it’s a good idea.
A 9am-5pm school day would have certainly suited my working parents. It would suit me as a working parent.
A longer school day would be much better aligned to what’s happening in the lives of most working parents.
What are “normal” working hours?
The Center for American Progress found a typical school day did not reflect “normal working hours”, with most schools closing two hours or more before the end of the typical workday.
“What we saw was that schools sort of reflects this attitude of the 1950s, where there was an assumption that one adult, usually a woman, would be home to come to the school pick them up at 3 o’ clock or deal with it when the schools closed,” Ulrich Boser, co-author of the report, told The Huffington Post.
The study found lower income earners were also hit hard because they struggled to cover the cost of out of hours care and non-school days while trying to make a living.
“We just always assume schools close at 3, and then there’s some kind of jerry-rigged system we try to put on top of it,” Boser said.
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Everyone here seems to be arguing about whether to make school hours longer, but what if we consider doing the opposite and make work hours shorter?
It's been tested in a couple of European countries where office workers work 6 hours but still get paid the same amount and that has been working wonders for people's life balance
I imagine this won't work so well for employers and employees for different industries that require 24 hour attention though (e.g. healthcare and security/surveillance), but this may be something that companies should start looking into in any case.
Parents will be able to accommodate their children's needs better and employees will feel "fresher" and more motivated all round :)
Hi there.
I'm French and in my country, every child from 2 y/o goes to school from 8 to 4. From 4, there is 1 hour during the teacher can hemp children with their homework.
And I works ! For everyone. It is very more suitable to nowadays life (both parents working full-time). I am pretty sure that parents already paying a lot to have someone taking care of their children after 3pm would be happy to use this money having a teacher learning things to their kids.