Britsh primary schools to open 10 hrs daily
The German education authorities are struggling to move from morning-only schools – primary and secondary schools don’t provide midday meals or tuition in the afternoon – to ones which are open for something approaching a normal working day, so long as enough parents request it at a specific school. In many cases where schools are now open longer, there is only unqualified supervision for the children, rather than lessons or the extended school day is not effective on every day in the week.
Meanwhile, the British government has declared the goal of having all primary schools open from 08:00 hrs to 18:00 hrs five days in the week.
The government wants to have the first 250 schools implemented by 2006, and 1000 schools within 4 years. The schools will offer extra sports and art activities, family learning and parenting classes as well as childcare and extra study support for pupils. The goal is two-fold: to help working parents, and to get the children doing more sport.
The move comes after suggestions that the 300% increase in obese pupils over the last 20 years has been largely caused by selling off schools’ playing fields, cutting sports lessons and installing sweet and drink vending machines in schools. The Education Secretary will be announcing further measures aimed at improving the pupils’ knowledge about healthy eating next week.