As you know, today many schools in the Valencian Community voted for the implementation of the Continuous Day ... as you also know, this Community is one of the few in our country that still maintains the split schedule for Infant and Primary students. So much has been said about school times, that I doubt we can contribute anything new, except (if possible) to compare advantages and disadvantages, even if it is to give an overview.
As we have learned, in the most active CEIPs and pro 'continuous working hours', by 18 pm a participation percentage of more than 50 percent had been reached; When I read the data, I couldn't help but think about those other important issues for which a lot of participation is required, and which finally fail to attract families (for example: the elections to School Councils), but that is another matter.
It is an issue surrounded by controversy, since the needs and demands of all the sectors involved are at stake. Throughout this post I will introduce different positions, and also the opinion of some experts; before let me point out one of the arguments put forward in favor of the continuous day: most European countries have adopted it. Apart from the fact that in this case we should review the concept 'the majority'; in other European countries they do not have so many problems with conciliation, so that girls and boys enjoy the afternoons of their parents, who promote a love for culture, sports or coexistence.
It is true that places that maintain a split day considerably reduce the time in which students remain in the school canteen service, and the midday meal is light, thus they rejoin without leaving many hours between the morning and the afternoon. late. This seems like a good solution, because they will go out earlier and have (I guess) more hours of freedom after class. I think that deep down they are quite right in defending the benefits of both organizational models, but we see it in more detail.
School times of discord?
In Aragon the implementation of the continuous day was recently approved, and in fact it is this school year when it is 'released', it will be necessary to be aware of the results obtained. If the hours of the split day are (generally) from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 15 p.m. to 17 p.m., the intensive takes place between 9 and 2 pm. The school canteen service extends the children's stay at school until 16 pm. and are cared for by school cafeteria caretakers. What happens after 4 in the afternoon? Well, various extracurricular activities should be scheduled to be developed within the school.
This last point is the one that leads some experts to consider that this day could increase social inequalities, because not everyone finishes working at 2, 3 or 4 in the afternoon, on the other hand working long hours and with Complicated schedules do not guarantee being able to pay for various activities for the children, as there are those who have very tight wages. So, what if the parents are not and cannot pay for activities?, because there would be more boys and girls who would pass many hours without parental supervision, going home alone and 'maybe' performing unhealthy use of technological devices.
But this is an assumption, because there are those who have grandparents or other relatives to help take care of the offspring. I would like to tell you that in the Valencian Community, the centers that wanted to implement the continuous day presented projects to the Department of Education, which were positively valued have had the option of calling mothers and fathers to vote today. Some parent representatives pointed out that along with very well elaborated proposals there were others that based the attention to the students after 16 pm on volunteers., and sincerely, I believe that there must be professional criteria for this type of service, to guarantee a certain quality and also continuity.
The journey continues.
Drawbacks.
- It has not been proven that students take better advantage of classes when they go to school only in the morning, since at the last minute attention decreases; that's why classes that don't require too much concentration should be scheduled.
- Any parent who does not finish before 5 in the afternoon will have to pay for activities for all afternoons of the week.
- The duration of the classes is shorter, it could be that the children had more homework. Or at least that is what Professor Caride detected in 1993.
- Worse academic results, although this point is one of the most controversial.
- It has been said that this way of organizing school hours was a covert way of cutting costs, especially if the regional administration does not commit to maintaining school canteens.
Advantage.
- More free time and more time with the family, as long as the parents do not finish later than 7 in the afternoon, but this problem also exists with the other day. I repeat: one of the basic problems is the lack of conciliation.
- It will improve the working hours of teachers, and their conciliation.
- You can diversify the offer of professional services dedicated to extracurricular or leisure activities; but these could only be used by families with a certain purchasing power.
The split day.
Drawbacks.
- Children who stay in the cafeteria spend at least 8 hours at school. A little one who is picked up at 14:16 p.m. or XNUMX:XNUMX p.m., spends less time. Everything is conditional on the parents' schedules.
- The youngest of Infantil (P3 and P4), after eating are very tired; perhaps at these ages no student should spend more than 3 hours in school.
- During the months from late autumn to mid-winter, the afternoon schedule is not very compatible with the circadian rhythms of children, let's not forget that the change in time predisposes them to tire in the last hour after eating.
Advantage.
- Children are more active after eating than during the last 2 hours in the morning / noon.
- Facilities to reconcile according to the parents' schedules, but especially for those who make office hours ending at 17 or 18 hours. Even so, external services or extracurricular activities must be contracted
- If the child eats at home, he has the opportunity to live with his family at those times; although this also happens with the continuous day.
- Although there are no conclusive studies that favor the continuous day, both Rafael Feito and Mariano Fernández Enguita, assure that the game favors school performance.
I imagine that as of today it remains to be seen what results have been obtained in the centers of the Valencian Community, and if a similar movement arises in the autonomies that still do not have a continuous day, such as Catalonia. I know that in Castilla La Mancha, there were complaints because after seeing that better results were not obtained, some centers wanted to reverse the decision and return to the game, but it was not possible.
Images - woodleywonderworks, thelmadatter