Opinion: Proposed four-day school week will only hurt our kids

Children need more time in school, not less, yet the state government’s bizarre policy of a four-day week will only increase youth crime and hurt academic outcomes, writes Kylie Lang

• School shake-up explained

Children need to spend more time in school, not less, but in its infinite lack of wisdom, the state government is sanctioning truancy. As Queensland’s youth crime rates soar and academic results fall deeper into the abyss, the Palaszczuk government is making one of its most bizarre calls yet – offering kids a day off.

The idiotic idea of a four-day week is being floated in all public schools, proving Education Minister Grace Grace has completely lost the plot.

Reasons for shortening the school week include the “wellbeing and engagement” of students and staff. Oh, please.

Setting aside a day for external “independent learning” will only give wayward kids more time to steal cars and terrorise neighbourhoods.

Even the most academically driven students will be unlikely to have the maturity to self-regulate their studies when no-one is looking.

And there’s been no word from the minister on whether or not teachers will be paid for five days while only working a traditional four. I can’t see teachers’ unions copping wage cuts for their members, can you?

Meanwhile, working parents will be forced to change their own hours to accommodate this ridiculous shake-up – or find money they don’t have, particularly in these tough times, to pay for childcare or switch to private schools.

Not surprisingly, parents are furious and so are many teachers who reckon the blueprint communicated to all principals on Monday is a dud.

What this woke government cares to overlook is that a good education is the bedrock of opportunity.

This holds for young people the world over, but here in Queensland, we’re dumbing everything down.

Instead of raising the bar and empowering teachers, we’re lowering it and condemning kids to a life of mediocrity at best, failure at worst.

How can children learn the basics – let alone real world skills like how to think creatively and solve problems – in less time when they can’t do it in the five days they currently have?

Do the maths, Minister.

As part of the policy proposed for next year, schools can also alter their start and finishing times by more than 30 minutes.

Principals must provide supervision for students who are present outside those times, including on the non-attendance day.

There won’t be formal classes on this free-learning day, which means teachers will be reduced to babysitters, again to the detriment of their professional satisfaction and kids’ educational outcomes.

The undeniable fact is children, regardless of individual abilities and circumstances, thrive on routine.

They do best when boundaries are known and respected.

For those kids – and they’re multiplying – who think school is a joke, the government’s misguided offering will only encourage wagging and getting up to mischief.

The Queensland Government is paving the way for public schools to offer flexible hours.

Mrs Grace has defended the plan, saying schools will still be expected to operate “five days a week, Monday to Friday” to “make sure that students are all catered for”.

It won’t be a case of locking the door on one day and nobody turns up, she says. But being open for business doesn’t equal getting results. Where is the evidence that a four-day school week works?

Data in the SEC Newgate Mood of the Nation report released on Friday shows Queensland has the lowest approval rating of any state government. Cost of living, crime and housing affordability polled as the three major concerns.

To these we can add education, with this latest ill-conceived policy that fails, yet again, to address critical flaws in the system.

Money should be spent on attracting and retaining the brightest and best teachers but instead “flexibility” is somehow the answer.

Mrs Grace insists that individual schools that want to change class contact hours must win community support first and will then face “rigorous scrutiny” by the education department’s regional directors.

If the level of scrutiny is anything like the bungled responses to school-based bullying, we have every reason to worry. Any reduction in the time kids spend learning is a reduction in their marketability in the real world.

Children should be taught not only how to think and understand but also how to be resilient, learn from their mistakes and move on.

Giving them a day off will only diminish their job prospects and their ability to contribute positively to society. All children deserve a quality education, not a compromised one.

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail [e-mail]