4-DAY SCHOOL, MAKE WEDNESDAY A BREAK FOR JC2 STUDENTS

Purpose:

Students have been experiencing demotivation, burnout and deteriorating physical health due to sitting and being online at least 40 hours a week. Our screentime is strikingly high, and we barely have enough time to complete hw, self study, conduct our university research and more importantly - rest. 

The constant fixation on academic performance (as well as pressure from the expectations of parents and teachers) can be a large source of stress for students. It doesn’t get easier either, due to the increasing difficulty of the subject matter taught in junior college compared to secondary school. Having a day off in the week can be a source of rest for JC2 students, allowing us to have a day to focus on our mental health and personal development. A day off means more time to indulge in stress-relieving non-academic interests, as well as provide more time to finish assignments and university applications, alleviating the pressure of our academics and staving off burnout. 

Upon the completion of AS level Chinese, EGP and GPR, we find ourselves not doing much productive work during these periods. Since we already have adequate class time for other subjects, replacing Chinese, EGP/GPR with them would not be necessary. If we take away these classes and retain the current school hours, a day off during the week would be possible. 

Here is a verbatim quotation on a research analysis by EducationWeek.org [1]: 

“A study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which compared schools that implement 5 day weeks and 1,600 schools with the 4-day model in the US has provided us with some interesting findings:

1.) When timing was added up, districts in the sample using the four-day schedule had longer days by about 50 minutes, but over the course of the year averaged 58 fewer hours of school.
2.) Students in the four-day weeks spent significantly more time on school sports and on chores than did those in five-day weeks. Four-day secondary students also spent more time on homework, at jobs, at school activities, and on hobbies than their counterparts.
3.) Most students in the four-day districts—80 percent of high school students and 90 percent of elementary students—spent their “off day” at home.
4.) The four-day week did not appear to affect student-absenteeism rates or result in more food insecurity for students.
5.) It did seem to change some sleep patterns, with four-day elementary students reporting that they got more sleep and four-day secondary students saying that they felt much less tired than their counterparts in five-day systems.
6.) Parents and students, given the choice, overwhelmingly said they favored the four-day model, with 69 percent of the former and 85 percent of the latter preferring it over five-day schedules.

That final finding came as a bit of a surprise, said Kilburn, who is now a research professor at the Centers for Disease Control Prevention Research Center at the University of New Mexico. “In the policy debates, you often hear people saying, ‘We shouldn’t do it because parents won’t like it.’ Actually, in the district where people chose to switch, people really like it a lot, and it might be really tough to switch back once you do it,”

The researchers interviewed more than 400 parents, teachers, administrators, and students in three states with large numbers of districts using the four-day model: Idaho, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. They also administered thousands of surveys to secondary students and to the parents of elementary students in 36 districts across those states and in three others—half of them using the four-day schedule and half using a traditional schedule—and collected data on their school schedules.”

This shows that the research is generalisable, and it is not implemented in many schools today without reason. Considering the positive results these schools have seen, shouldn’t Bina Bangsa School also give it a go? Start with us, the Junior College 2, who are most likely overwhelmed with tests and university applications. 

Proposed solution:

Wednesdays (or possibly another day of the week) could be a holiday. This could be done by removing all EGP and Chinese classes. 

Why Wednesday?

According to Professor Dawna Ballard from the University of Texas2, “Everyone has a different chronotype. Some people are slower moving, some people are faster moving. Our work, though, just goes and throws that out the window and says actually, this is how fast you have to work, this is when you have to work.” “Chronic misalignment between our lifestyle and the rhythm dictated by our inner timekeeper is associated with increased risk for various diseases.” said researchers Jeffery C. Hall, Michael Robash, and Michael W. Young[3], who studied human circadian rhythms. This shows that a five day work week without breaks and going against our chronotypes would cause productivity to decline.

Although some researchers have argued that taking a break from work would cause people to find it harder to get back to work after a longer vacation. This is why sleep researcher and neurology instructor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Kelly Glazer Baron, stated that “In the short term, taking a mid-week day off is a balancing act.” [3]

Benefit of Solution:

-Rest in between days will promote more productive working hours. 

-Having adequate time to rest and sleep will improve the mental and physical health of students. 

-Reducing the risks of poorer eyesight and myopia.                              

-Taking Wednesdays off instead of Fridays would prevent us from feeling demotivated after a long weekend. 

-More time to conduct university research, write essays and apply to universities. 

-More time to pursue interests outside of the classroom. 

-More time to conduct volunteer or social work, internships, etc.

-More time to spend with family before going to university. 

-More time to self study and improve academic performance.            

-Better prevention of spreading the virus since students doing hybrid learning will only come to school 4 days a week. 

-Reduction in financial costs for parents with no decrease in academic value.      

-Less teaching hours for teachers and more time to prepare lessons.

How can YOU contribute to driving this positive change?

By signing this petition, a 4 day school week will become all the more likely. For every signature, we are one step closer towards a happier, healthier and academically excelling student body. As seen from our caring teachers who always ask how we are doing, and the mental health speeches done, we know that our Bina Bangsa School values the wellbeing of students and teachers. This change is not an impossibility. We just need your voices to make it happen. Sign now, and share to all your friends! 

Footnotes:

[1]Sawchuk, October 2021. 4-Day School Weeks: New Research Examines the Benefits and Drawbacks [Online] Available at: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/4-day-school-weeks-new-research-examines-the-benefits-and-drawbacks/2021/10 

[2]McCaffery, 2017. Why Wednesday Is the Best Day to Take Off Work [Online]Available at: https://www.rd.com/article/best-day-take-off-work-not-friday/ 

[3]The Jakarta Post, 2018. Wednesday is the best day to take a day off: Experts. [Online]

Available at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/12/01/wednesday-is-the-best-day-to-take-a-day-off-experts.html 

Other sources to explore:

https://www.hrmagazine.co.uk/content/news/wednesday-half-days-could-boost-productivity 

https://news.stanford.edu/2014/03/10/too-much-homework-031014/

https://ftp.iza.org/dp8129.pdf