FREE ESSAY: SHOULD SCHOOL CALENDAR BE LONGER OR SHORTER?

Parents, educators, and students have long had differing opinions on the optimal length of the school year. There are those who think the present school year is too short and those who think it should be extended. In this paper, I will discuss the pros and cons of having a longer school year, and I will conclude that pupils would benefit from it.

More time to learn is one of the key advantages of a longer school year. It has been demonstrated via research that pupils in nations with longer school years have higher levels of academic success. This is because when students spend longer time in class, they get to learn more and have more chances to put their knowledge into practice. In addition, the achievement gap between pupils from low-income households and their richer counterparts can be reduced by having a longer school year. Having less resources at home to help them learn puts students from low-income homes at a disadvantage. One strategy to assist ensure that all kids have the same opportunity to achieve is to extend the school year.

One benefit of a longer school year is that it might lessen the impact of summer learning loss. There is evidence to suggest that over the summer months, children might experience a “summer slide” in their academic abilities due to the substantial quantity of information they forget. This can be especially challenging for kids from low-income families, who may not have the means to participate in enriching educational activities during the summer.

Having additional opportunities for learning throughout the year, which a longer school year would provide, would help alleviate this issue. There may be some drawbacks to a longer school year as well. It’s a worry that it might cause student and educator fatigue. Exhaustion from longer school days and additional time in the classroom might have a detrimental effect on both groups’ motivation and performance. Finding the money to sustain a longer school year is another issue of worry. The schools would have to find the money to compensate the teachers and staff for the extra time, as well as pay for the additional supplies.

Despite these reservations, I’m certain that a longer school year has more upsides than downsides. More frequent breaks during the school year, for both students and instructors, might be one solution to the problem of burnout in the educational system.

Year-round schooling and calendar adjustments that feature longer school days but shorter weeks are two other scheduling experiments that schools might try. A longer school year, in my opinion, is the greatest way to provide children the time and support they need to thrive in the classroom. We can build a system that helps all students if we reduce burnout and keep costs down while increasing year-round learning opportunities. By extending the school year, we can help children attain their academic potential, eliminate summer learning loss, and shrink the achievement gap.