Longer school day rejected

Press, 17 May 1986, Page 3

Longer school day rejected

A proposal by the Canterbury Education Board to lengthen the rural primary school day has been rejected by the Minister of Education, Mr Marshall. When Mr Marshall visited the board in March, Mr Kelvin Dunbar suggested the primary school day be extended 30 minutes in rural areas. He said that children were already spending this time' -

at school, because they were having to wait for a school bus which also carried secondary school pupils. The extension would then mean the primary school children could take the same holidays as secondary school pupils, and buses would not have to run half empty for a couple of weeks each year. However, the Minister

has told the board that he did not intend to make any change. “I believe that the evidence is not supportive of any lengthening of the teaching day for primary school pupils, especially for those pupils in classes of Standard 2 and below,” Mr Marshall said in a letter presented to the board yesterday. "At the end of two

hours of afternoon school most primary aged children have reached the point where any additional time in the classroom would be of reduced value in terms of learning.” He also said there would need to be a change in regulations to allow primary schools to have the same holidays as secondary schools.