Do not extend school hours!

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Opposition Spokesman on Education Damion Crawford recently shared on Smile Jamaica his belief that Jamaica’s education system needs to increase instructional time by an additional two hours.

We appreciate that Mr Crawford’s intention is to address the education crisis plaguing Jamaica, particularly our literacy and numeracy rates, coupled with the fact that many students are not obtaining the requisite CSEC passes to matriculate into tertiary education. His proposal draws from East Asia’s learning model. However, we must be cautious about how we approach the learning crisis, as a blanket approach does not necessarily address the specific issues we are so desperately and rightly seeking to resolve.

Academic research highlights the distinction between allocated time, that is, the hours a school is open, and academic learning time, the time students are actively engaged in absorbing material. Simply adding hours can result in more administrative tasks and slower-paced teaching, rather than the focused interventions students actually need.

Research also points to the effects of cognitive fatigue during extended school days. Packing more hours into a single day can yield diminishing returns, as students’ attention wanes, behavioural problems may increase, and the final hours of an extended school day may become less productive for learning and retention.

We must, therefore, consider not only how much time children spend in school, but also how that time affects their overall well-being.

There is also the question of cost. Extending the school day requires additional resources, including teacher salaries, utilities, and facilities. We must ask whether this is the most effective use of limited resources when other interventions could directly address students’ learning needs.

To address Jamaica’s learning crisis, we should focus on providing affordable, targeted support to students who need additional help, including small-group tutoring; making better use of the instructional time schools already have by reducing unnecessary disruptions; improving the quality of teaching through structured curricula and teacher support; and giving educators greater flexibility to respond to their students’ needs.

Further, let us be honest: no one wants to spend almost nine hours a day in a classroom learning.

The brain needs time to decompress, recover, and have fun. Contrary to popular belief, relaxation is also an important part of a child’s life.

Please do not rob the children of their time to be children.

FI WE CHILDREN FOUNDATION