School Summer Holiday: Six-Week Break Could Go

'Looking East' For Better Education

Updated: 12:04pm UK, Tuesday 02 July 2013

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent

For some time now, Education Secretary Michael Gove has been "gazing east" as he grapples with what he sees as a British education system in need of much improvement.

He is said to admire the education systems in Singapore and Hong Kong, and his advisers have looked at the systems in China, South Korea and Japan as well.

SINGAPORE

In Singapore there are four annual holidays. The first in March lasts a week. The second in June lasts the whole month.

The third in September lasts a week and the last one begins on November 16 and lasts until the end of December - a full six weeks - making an annual total of 12 weeks' holiday.

The length of the school day is determined by each school, but the Singapore government issues guidelines.

For secondary schools, the curriculum time guidelines stipulate 40 periods of 40 minutes each per week.

This works out at six hours a day including break time. Primary schools have slightly shorter classes and a one-hour shorter day.

HONG KONG

In Hong Kong, part of China but with an independent education system, students are given two weeks in the spring for the Chinese New Year holiday.

In the summer, they have six weeks off and, in December, they are given a further 10 days. That totals about nine weeks.

Hong Kong students begin their day at about 8.30am (depending on the school) and finish their classroom time at about 3.30pm.

They then stay for a further two hours for extra-curricular activities.

CHINA

In mainland China, the holiday periods and lengths differ from province to province.

On average though, students are given two main holidays. The first is seven weeks in July and August. The second - two weeks on average - is over the Chinese New Year.

The length of the Chinese school day varies. On average though, they tend to start work at 7.30am and end at 5pm but many offer evening activities too.

In Beijing, after pressure from parents that the school day was too long, the local education ministry introduced a compulsory regulation that required schools to reduce their working hours.

It stated that schools must not begin before 7.30am and must end by 3.30pm.

SOUTH KOREA

In South Korea, the holiday periods are entirely at individual schools' discretion.

There is an optional one-to-two week holiday in February.

For two weeks in the summer, there is a holiday of sorts, but students are still required to go to school for half a day.

In December there is a further holiday for up to one month.

South Korean school classes begin at 8am. Again, the working day is at the discretion of individual school management teams.

Thirteen to 16 year-olds must do 33 hours a week and 160 study days a year.

In reality, they will often do much more, such are the pressures to succeed.

High school students - aged 16-19 - must do 42 hours a week but again, they will often stay in school for up to 18 hours a day.

The South Korean education system is known to be one of the world's most strict in terms of hours, curriculum and competition to succeed.

Results are good - South Korea was second only to Finland in a recent global education report, but the pressures can be extreme.

According to the South Korean teachers' union,11.2% of children expressed a wish to commit suicide and of those, almost half said it was because of pressure at school.

Broadly, the ethos which drives the Asian education systems puts significant emphasis on the "fear of failing".

The ultimate goal set for students is their final examination which, they are told, will determine their destiny.

In some cases, experts argue, the "fear of failing" outweighs the pleasure of succeeding.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

School Summer Holiday: Six-Week Break Could Go

Dengan url

http://cobaagains.blogspot.com/2013/07/school-summer-holiday-six-week-break.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

School Summer Holiday: Six-Week Break Could Go

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

School Summer Holiday: Six-Week Break Could Go

sebagai sumbernya