Are the school summer holidays a time to rest and recharge or should they be shorter to prevent learning loss?
French President, Emmanuel Macron, is set to re-ignite the discussion on the length of the country’s school summer holidays, reports EuroNews.
The issues around having a long break in the summer are routinely debated in countries throughout the world. For students, they are a welcome respite from the relentless routine of school and homework, giving them chance to breathe and recharge. For teachers, this time is welcomed for the same reasons, in addition to having the chance to plan for the new school year and prepare their classrooms ready for their students’ return. For parents, however, these can be some of the most challenging weeks of the year, having to juggle going to work with childcare, not to mention raised expenses all round, which is particularly difficult in a cost of living crisis.
Shorter holidays, better scores?
In terms of learning, there is a risk of students forgetting what they have learned; this is often labelled ‘summer learning loss’. Even more time is ‘lost’ once students return to school, when they must recap the learning from before the holidays.
Would shorter holidays combat this? President Macron seems to suggest this might be the case. French students have around eight weeks off in the summer, around the average length for EU countries. In contrast, Estonian students have an 11-week break in the summer and sit at the top of the PISA scores, so it suggests the debate is multi-faceted and includes issues such as context, culture and demographics alongside pure learning.
Discover how long European school summer holidays are and how this correlates with their students’ PISA scores.
