A district of the state of Colorado is the last to join the four-day system in some schools in the United States, a measure that also seems to be becoming fashionable in Europe. In countries such as France it is implemented and others such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have also raised the idea of reduce the school week to four days. What is it about? Does it benefit children's education? Would it be feasible to implement it in Spain?
What is the four day school?
The four-day school consists of reducing the school week to four days instead of the usual five-day week, and to compensate for it increase the teaching day of those four days between 40 and 60 minutes. Generally, the day off is Monday or Friday thus extending the weekend to three days, although in France, for example, the day off is midweek.
In the United States, it was implemented as a saving measure and works mainly in rural and small-town schools, until it is currently established in 550 districts. The measure reflects the crisis of public education in that country, since the model contributes to a reduction in the overall costs of schools.
The costs of maintenance services, materials and salaries are thus reduced (the saving is estimated to be 20 percent, although according to a study conducted by the Education Commission of the States (or ECS) this saving would not be real, since there are unavoidable and indirect fixed expenses that do not vary depending on the days.
In France, Wednesday is free day
In the French education system, Wednesdays are free day for elementary school children and from 12 years old they leave at noon, so parents have to find solutions to interrupt the workday and pick up the children to school or hire babysitters to do so. The municipalities have a program of activities for children on their day off.
Anyway, each center is free to establish its schedule so it can adapt the teaching hours as it deems appropriate.
It seems a current idea but it is an inheritance of the French Revolution, a 1905 law motivated by the separation between Church and State, when catechesis, which was banished from public education, was given on Wednesdays. By deleting it, that school day was also deleted.
Does it benefit children's education?
Improves school performance and reduces absenteeism
In addition to saving by schools (schools that have tested it report savings of up to 5% in their annual budgets), a study published in the academic journal Education, Finance and Policy considers that improves school performance.
When analyzing fifth-grade student scores on the Colorado state standardized tests, students who participated in academic programs four days a week were found to have better math grades than those who attended college Monday through Friday. However, no significant change in reading ability was recorded.
On the other hand, having a freer day a week, children have less workload and contrary to what one might think, they miss school less. There have been significant reductions in absenteeism rates.
However, although there are promising results, at the moment there is not enough evidence that demonstrate that a four-day day benefits the education of children and therefore recommends it in schools, according to the CRPE (Center for the Reinvention of Public Education)
Difficulty (even more) reconciliation
The main point against this measure is the difficult (if not impossible) reconciliation between work and family life, and therefore, for what I consider it would not be feasible to implement it in Spain.
For parents with traditional working hours, it implies extra expenses in camps, activities or in a person who takes care of the children on the day off.
It is clear that in our country measures are needed to improve the education system, introduce more modern teaching methods and reduce school dropout. The four-day school week system could work if there were an educational and conciliation framework that supported it, but I think it would not fit in the current system.
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