Job Discussion Forums

[flyingcolours]

When I went to elementary school the school day began at 9:15am and finished at 3:15am. This allowed plenty of time to study, play and spend time with family. From my experience in teaching in Asia every international school runs for 9 hours or more a day. The kids seem tired and wired.
Why are the hours poured on like this?

[Guy Courchesne]

International schools in Mexico City run from 730 to 230. Public schools here run 8:30 to 1:30 or 2:00. I remember going from 9 to 3 in Canada.

9 hours is pretty long....what's normal, 8 to 5?

[veronica2]

So are there extra lessons or something thrown in, or a long lunch break? I'm surious what they do all that time?

[tttompatz]

The majority of schools follow the national guidelines for each country.

In Korea there are 1000 hours of instruction per year based on 220 instruction days per year and "regular classes running from 9:00 - 2:30 (teachers in school from 8:30-4:30).

In Thailand the government calls for 1000 hours of instruction per year.
In our particular schools teachers are in from 8:00 - 4:30 and regular classes are from 8:30 - 3:00 (5 hours of instruction per day * 200 instruction days per year).

I could be mistaken but I am pretty sure that the north American standards are comparable (950-1000 instruction hours per year).

This of course does NOT include extra curricular activities which in Asia may mean English or Math/Science study rather than basketball or football.

.

[kev7161]

I teach 4th grade elementary in China. The kids are to arrive by 7:30 AM and, with 4th grade at least, those that attend night classes stay until 7:30 PM. However, parents have the option of picking their kids up at about 4:45 PM. Those that stay for night classes are mostly the same that board at the school.

The kids go to lunch at 11:45AM and their next class does not start until 1:20 PM. Most kids swallow their lunches down and are outside playing (unless it's too cold, then running around the classroom) by noon. So, essentially, an hour and twenty minutes of playtime? Not really. In my department, we have the kids in the classroom by 12:30 for study time, reading time, supplemental lessons, rehearsal time (if a production is coming up) or other such activities. Usually their Chinese head teacher is the one that organizes or supervises these activities, buy I do give one scheduled "lunch time" lesson on Mondays and watch over the kids as they study on Tuesdays.

From what I hear, the night time "lessons" are a joke. There are only a handful of students in the classrooms at that time and often students are watching DVDs or TV or supposedly working on lessons. If students sleep at school, I get the whole night time activity thing, essentially a babysitting service. For those that stay in the evening but are still picked up at 7:30 (kids leave at different times depending on their grade level), why bother? There's not a whole lot of learning going on I feel.

In China, it seems that parents socialize a lot, do a lot of business, and they plop their kids in school for 12 hours (or more!) so they don't have to deal with them on top of their busy social/business lives. On the weekends, they throw them into language schools or music lessons or some other sort of schooling. Outside of holiday time (and even then, sometime DURING holiday time!), this is the life of a child in China.

I, on the other hand, am generally done by 2:30-3:00 and have the rest of my day and evening free, along with weekends. While I feel for the kids, it's not my system, so I don't really question it all too much. With a lot of these kids being only children, they may welcome being able to hang out with kids their own age all day. However, I wish the school would structure it differently. Example: Lessons from 7:30 to 2:30, supervised study time from 2:30 to 4:00, play time and other "fun" activities from 4:00 to 7:30 (with appropriate meals and other breaks throughout the day of course).

[contented]

When I was a kid my midwestern school days ran from 8am to 3:15pm and I was home before 4pm.

I'm teaching abroad and I've worked at a few schools. One school's hours ran from 8am to 3:40pm for the kids, but the teachers had to stay until 4:30pm. My current school runs from 8:50 to 4:40pm for both teachers and kids. Lunch break is 40 min. and breaks in between classes are 10 minutes.

[naturegirl321]

[LongShiKong]

Don't forget that education is only one of the functions of public schooling.

Canada's largest province started phasing in full-day JK and K classes starting Sept 2010 with full-time early chlidhood care assistants in each class. I was in one of them that year for a month.

[DebMer]

This thread is depressing. Have some kids and let the state rear them?

[EFLeducator]

[Glenski]

Here in Japan, elementary school (at least in the public school where my kid attends) runs from 8:15 to 2:30 or so. There is an occasional day when it is an hour longer.

Of course, summer vacation is far shorter than in the U.S. Here it is only about 2-3 weeks. Spring break isn't much different than that, either. School finishes in March, then resumes again in April.

[tttompatz]

[flyingcolours]

Better that the hours are more spread out with a shorter break as opposed to a longer break but having to be there "studying" 9 to 11+ hours per day.

[rayman]

In Indonesian public schools it's usually 7:30am - 1pm. Monday - Friday, then a shorter day on Saturday. Not so bad really.