Extending School Day Length: Pros vs Cons

During the National Education Sector Review forum held in Accra, the Minister of Education, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh complained about the closing time within Ghana schools. He therefore called for an extension of the normal 2pm closing time to 4pm. “School closes too early in this country. At 2pm, parents from farms are not back from work, so why can’t schools close at 4pm” the Minister said.

Generally, school day length varies from one country to another. Ghana finds itself in a category of countries that run on 7hours per day school length. If Hon. Opoku Prempeh’s suggestion is to implemented, then Ghana would join countries like Kenya and South Korea whose school day interval runs from 7am to 4pm. Indeed, a country like France even ends its school day at 5pm. So it is not new for schools to run into the latter hours of the afternoon.

Whilst the national debate rages on over whether or not the closing time of schools should be extended. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of whatever choice our policy makers settle on.

Firstly, extending the closing time would increase academic performance of students, provide students more avenue to socialise with peers, enable more extra curricula activities in schools, and increase the likelihood of parents picking up their wards from school. 

With the addition of two hours to the school day, students will get the chance to be taught challenges concepts into details. Also, teachers can give more class exercises to students and supervise them provide solutions. 

Extra period means extra academic work. In addition, more time spent in school implies that pupils will have for hours for themselves to make acquaintances amongst themselves. Building social networks does not only help build one’s self esteem, but it could serve as a life time. The more hours provided by the extension could also afford the space for more courses that are strictly no academic to the syllabi of students.

To the contrary, the nation is going to have to make more expenditure. Already, the Ghana National Association of Teachers have begun calls for government to pay teachers more if she wishes to extend the school hours. 

Also, there are more chances of children receiving negative peer influence from their colleagues. In addition, children are going to spend more and more times in an uncontrolled environment like school, where parents do not have direct oversight, a situation that makes youngsters who have not developed a matured sense of decision making vulnerable.

The dice has been cast. For now, one can not tell where it falls. But whatever final result we produce with regards to the subject of extension of school hours, there are going to be merits and demerits.