Should Schools be Open Year-Round?

Education is one of the fundamental elements of a person’s everyday existence; most accomplishments have been made possible thanks to the knowledge acquired through education. It is also well known that education gives one the ability to take on a variety of responsibilities and achieve success in life. Due to these factors, our culture values school systems highly. A year-round school system has been proposed as a change to the existing educational structure. Instead of the two to three months of vacation time offered by the present system, the students will only get a maximum of one month off. A year-round schooling system is a bad idea because of the pedagogical or educational reasons, economic reasons, and the social reasons. Having a year-round school system will cost more. The learners will not have a chance to look for summer jobs, some of the students depend on these jobs to meet their financial needs. Many students take up summer jobs so that they can save money to use in school or pay up for services that they need. Such a system will also cost the parents and guardians more; they should pay more fees in school so that the children can be kept in school longer. They also should give their children money for upkeep in school; this means that they must spend more than they are spending on their children in the current education system. The schools’ boards will also have to spend more so that they can keep the students in school (Boyden and Zoe 15). These are the economic reasons that make a year-round schooling system a bad idea. This system will promote burnouts in teachers and the students. The burnout will not only be caused by the long working hours of teachers and students learning time but also the depression and cynicism that is brought by lack of control in carrying out work (Rouse et al. 304). One of the reasons that a year-round system was suggested was to improve the education standards. It means that the students and teachers will have to work more than they have been working, this is a bad idea as it will cause burnouts that will lead to chronic stress, ill health, and unhappiness in both teachers and students which will be quite difficult to deal with. Eventually, the education levels might become worse than they are now. Such a system will threaten the family life and bonds. Most parents look forward to vacation time so that they can bond. Most of the time the children will be in school and the only time that they are available to share with their parents and relatives is during the summer vacation. They organize vacation trips so that they can bond and catch-up (Durko and James 722). Reducing this time means that the children will not have enough time with their parents and their family unity might be threatened. It is a social reason why it is not a good idea to have a year-round school system.

The year-round schooling system has not been proven to increase the academic performance of students. No enough evidence shows if one attends school throughout the year he or she is going to achieve higher test marks (Rouse et al. 310). It is one of the reasons why such a system was proposed; this has failed. In fact, this system could lead to poorer grades or academic standards as the students and teachers may suffer from burnout.

Works Cited

Boyden, Jo, and Zoe James. “Schooling, childhood poverty and international development: Choices and challenges in a longitudinal study.” Oxford Review of Education 40.1 (2014): 10-29.

Durko, Angela M., and James F. Petrick. “Family and relationship benefits of travel experiences: A literature review.” Journal of Travel Research 52.6 (2013): 720-730.

Graves, Jennifer, Steven McMullen, and Kathryn Rouse. “Multi-track year-round schooling as cost-saving reform: Not just a matter of time.” Education 8.3 (2013): 300-315.