Voices Of Youth

Four-day school week not the answer

Having four days of school a week instead of five sounds like a dream come true for most students.

Most students want an extra day of rest because of sleep problems caused by staying up late to finish homework.

However, they tend to neglect the fact that one less day of school results in time lost from the curriculum.

This would have repercussions, such as a longer school day for teachers to cover the syllabus.

This will result in students staying up even later to finish their homework.

Students may crash on their day of rest, promoting bad sleeping habits and aggravating the situation.

Rather than have a four-day week, I propose that schools start slightly later instead.

This would minimise the disturbance on curriculum time and make progress in helping students' sleep issues.

More needs to be done to bring balance to this situation.

Kimberly Serafina Lo Hui Wen, 16

Secondary 4 student


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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 18, 2017, with the headline Four-day school week not the answer. Subscribe