Kids are proposing a four-day schooling week. Photo / 123 rf
Kids are proposing a four-day schooling week. Photo / 123 rf
Thousands of Kiwi kids have signed a petition asking the Government to change the current school system to a four-day schooling week.
More than 4,000 students have signed the “Change the school week in NZ to 4 days” change.org petition, with the creator hoping to get at least 5,000 signatures.
According to the creator, students want to change the schooling week because the current “school system is draining” and a number of schools give students “mountains of homework daily”.
The person who also started the petition claimed the current system “has an extremely heavy impact on the mental and emotional health of our tamāriki in Aotearoa”.
“So having four school/work days would change everybody’s life for the better.”
The petition organiser believes children are experiencing burnout, and with all the extracurricular activities, there is no longer any time for them to be a kid and relax.
“If things change, then our children will be happier and everyone’s dopamine levels will increase. Therefore leading NZ’s teen [suicide] rates to drop. We need this NZ, we deserve this majorly.
“With all of the extracurricular activities and tutoring, when it comes to the weekend, you barely have any time to have a genuine break. Do you want your kids to be on the edge of a mental/academic burnout? No, didn’t think so.”
A study reported by Education Week in the US in 2021 showed that students enrolled in a four-day-week school facility got more hours of sleep, on average, and reported feeling less tired than students attending school for five days a week.
Almost all the students enrolled in a four-day-week school spent their day off at home, giving more time to school activities, hobbies, homework and jobs.
The study found that parents and students, given the choice, overwhelmingly said they favoured the four-day model.
It showed that 69 per cent of parents and 85 per cent of students involved in the study preferred the four-day schooling week over five-day schedules.
That came as a bit of a surprise to researcher Rebecca Kilburn.
“In the policy debates, you often hear people saying, ‘We shouldn’t do it because parents won’t like it’. Actually, in the district where people chose to switch, people really like it a lot, and it might be really tough to switch back once you do it.”
Students are saying the stress of school is too much for their mental health. Photo / 123rf
But could this actually be implemented in New Zealand?
According to the Ministry of Education, the changes to the schooling week would need to be a decision for the Government, Newshub reported.
Under current regulations, schools aren’t able to change to a four-day week during term time as the number of days set each year has already been decided.
Under the Education and Training Act, the amount of days schools must operate in New Zealand has already been set for 2024 and would take Government action to change.
Kiwi students responding to the petition weighed in on the idea, with many sharing their stresses with readers.
“I don’t like the fact that we have to work on Friday. I have a lot of teachers who give me homework on Friday, so I hope this will make a difference,” one said.
Another added: “Two days is not long enough when every week we have school, people have sports homework, tutoring - there are no days to rest.”
“I get too anxious to go to school, and I sometimes can’t even get there because of the workload put on me,” a third claimed.
A fourth added: “School is just too much and very overwhelming.”
A Polish city has taken the experiment up, changing their school system to just four days a week.
The reduced schedule — which comes along with fewer tests and new assessment criteria — was an initiative that came from the citizen grassroots level and ultimately was approved by municipal authorities, reports Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
Students will instead devote one day a week to carrying out non-traditional educational projects, such as going to science centres, learning a trade, or taking walks through local nature attractions.
Similar experiments in the United States, Australia, and France have already taken place, with some instituting one full day of “non-traditional” learning, or simply an extra day off, as a means of reducing student stress and increasing engagement in class time.
