Opinion: Inflexible school hours are haunting busy parents

NSW is open to changing school hours to better suit the needs of students and working parents, so why isn’t Victoria following suit?

Inflexible school hours are haunting busy parents and Victoria needs to change it. Picture: Rob Leeson

NSW is looking at changing the hours schools operate in a bid to better cater for working parents.

Why isn’t Victoria following suit given that this was first on the agenda nearly a decade ago?

Rigid school hours, often from 8.30am to 3.30pm, have been a curse for many parents for decades.

It means that in the morning, we’re trying to get kids to school at the same time as we need to get to work.

And in the afternoon, many of us are forced to stop working at 3pm to pick up kids.

With the return of many white-collar workers to offices across the state this week, the inflexibility of school hours is once again haunting busy parents.

A uniform starting time for most schools across the state also means hundreds of thousands of parents are clogging our roads at the same time.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet recently opened the issue up for debate. He challenged policy makers, parents and schools to “think outside the box” and bring “revolutionary ideas” to the state.

Schools should be given the ability to set the hours that suit their communities and students.

Last year my son’s primary school staggered the start and finish time by 15 minutes depending on students’ last names. It meant for a much more streamlined drop-off and pick-up process and much less congestion around school streets.

As the Herald Sun reported in 2020, school traffic makes trips on some major roads ten times longer.

Current Victorian Department of Education rules give schools very limited options in setting school times within a narrow window each morning and afternoon.

There is little flexibility, little freedom and few options for schools to cater for the particular needs of their community.

This needs to change. Schools across the state cater for diverse populations and backgrounds. It’s time to take this into account, and not just force everyone to be the same.

At the very least, it would be a good idea to allow high schools to start later – perhaps 10am – in order to better cater for the sleep needs of teenagers? This would also mean less congestion on roads and public transport.

Back in 2014 Liberal Education Minister Martin Dixon backed more flexible starting times for government students if schools wanted it. Some schools were pushing for a 9.30am start while others wanted to have three schedules to cover a 10am to 5.15pm school day.

If it’s supported by teachers and parents, why not? It could be the best thing to happen to schools and parents in a decade or more.

Surely it’s better to be revolutionary, than stuck in a rut.