Wednesday, May 09, 2007

New school hours for secondary students?

My nephew who is studying in Form 2 came back from school on Monday and duly informed his mom that effective from next month, classes will end at 4:00pm Mondays through Fridays.

A quick check with other moms confirmed that they have heard similar "rumours" about extended school hours for secondary school students in single session schools.

I wonder, if indeed our education ministry is going to re-schedule school hours for secondary students, what will the situation be for those schools that currently run two sessions? How are they going to fit in the "extra" hours without having to drag the students and teachers back to school on Saturdays?

Anyway, my sister-in-law is absolutely delighted with the new developments. And that goes for her friends too. Apparently, it is a very "convenient" arrangement for busy parents.

As for me, I hope that the school principals will work closely with the canteen operators so that a good choice of nutritious meals for lunch will be made available to the schoolkids.

It will really be the health ministry's nightmare if extended school hours resulted in kids feasting on a daily diet of high fat, sugary and nutritionally deficient foods.

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5 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I honestly hope that they would use the additional 3 hours for something extra curricular. Make it compulsory for students to involve themselves in clubs or sports teams.

There's a serious lack of soft skills and appreciation of art among our school leavers.

If they think forcing more academic knowledge down the throats of students is going to improve things, I have a good feeling that they're gonna screw everything up real good.

9/5/07 18:21  
Blogger zewt said...

another implement without proper recommend i think... and check out the no to UPSR and PMR... i really dunno what is the objective behind it.

10/5/07 00:08  
Blogger TH said...

I just read the recommendation to abolish UPSR and PMR (like Zewt says) and now they extend hours to 4pm?

I can imagine all the teenagers would feel like sleeping after lunch. They better make the classes interesting! Btw, we definitely lack artistic and creativity values.

10/5/07 02:14  
Blogger Mumsgather said...

Changes like these really require lots of thought and planning (because it involves much more than just extended hours, like you say nutritious meals being one of them), something which is often lacking here. Sigh.

10/5/07 10:54  
Blogger Arena Green said...

Silencers: I agree with your viewpoint.

Our students will be better off engaging in more physical & creative pursuits in school rather than studying for dodgy exam subjects like Moral Studies and Pendidikan Jasmani & Kesihatan (PJK or Health & Physical Education).

Zewt: Yeah - I think doing away with the UPSR and PMR exams is going to create more problems than solving what's ailing our education system right now.

Twisted Heels: Looks like quite a few of us would like to see our education ministry adopt a more holistic approach to the education of our kids :-).

I give the thumbs up too for more sports, creative & artistic pursuits in schools anytime!

Mumsgather: Just like the "crooked bridge" thingy, no decision is set in stone that cannot be changed at the last minute by a different person at the helm.

That said, I am curious as to how the extended hours are going to be utilised once a formal announcement has been made. Let's just hope that they don't intend to introduce additional subjects to be studied and examined.

10/5/07 12:16  

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