School Holidays

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31043, 26 April 1966, Page 16

School Holidays

Interest has been aroused in Auckland in the possibility of rearranging the terms of the school year. The Associated Chambers of Commerce last December sponsored a meeting in Wellington of hotel, motel, and other tourist industry representatives to discuss this subject. They agreed to ask the Government to investigate the possibility of dividing the school year into two terms of equal length and of extending the summer holiday. Education bodies in Auckland recently explored ideas for changes in the school year, and further talks will be held, perhaps with organisations outside the sphere of education. School committees and boards, commercial interests, parents, teachers and employers are all interested in this rather intricate subject, which has many side issues. The central one must remain: the paramount requirements of education. Much reliance must therefore be placed on the advice of teaching authorities. They are best qualified to assess the period over which most children study effectively without a holiday break. They should be able to advise on the effect of a longer summer holiday on study habits and disciplines. High school teachers should be best able to relate the arrangement of school terms to study for examinations. Parents no doubt have views on the social and domestic implications of holidays, on the convenience of uniformity among schools, on the importance of family activities when the whole family can be assembled, and on the difficulties that might arise during the long holiday with children “at a loose end ”. Parents, perhaps even more than medical men, will be aware of the benefits to health and stamina of the short holidays before and after the winter—an aspect that may be less significant in Auckland than in other parts of the country. Parents who are farmers may advocate the continuation of the May and August holidays because, for many of them, these holidays coincide with respites in the farming^year. Travel and accommodation interests might welcome an extension of summer holidays as a means to spread the demands on their resources. But it should be remembered that there is an interaction of many other factors—the season itself, custom, the statutory holidays at Christmas and New Year, the efficiency of industries and businesses which close for a summer holiday, visitors from abroad, professional holidays, and the rush of business for retailers before Christmas. By no means all holiday arrangements are dictated by the school year. A mere extension of the summer holiday of school children would not necessarily lead to changes in the holidays prescribed by industries, businesses, and professions. Clearly the proposal needs careful thought at this stage, and certainly no hasty action.