In the past few years, a trend of utilizing the school buildings, more fully and efficiently has been seen, Year-round schools, extended days, and double shifts are few of the methods used to serve the purpose, below is given a brief review on pros and cons of each method.
Year Round Schools.
The purpose of Year round schools is to keep the learning process ongoing, accompanied with smaller breaks.
Pros of Year Round Schools
“The longer students are away from material, the more forgetting occurs,” says Charles Ballinger, executive director emeritus of the National Association for Year-Round Education in San Diego, California.
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Mostly the students forget what have been taught to them during the summer break, shorter vacations can be beneficial for them as the learning process doesn’t stop.
Weak students can get improved grades by getting more instructional time.
Long vacations are of no use to parents as well, as mostly they are working and only can take out few weeks out of their schedule. Hence they can have quality family time with no worries of arranging alternate places for their kids when they are at work.
Cons of Year Round Schools
The cost of school maintenance can increase up to 10 to 15%.
It can be difficult for students having attention deficit issues to get more out of a longer school time.
There are a number of students who work part time to make money in order to support themselves; it would be difficult for them to hold a job.
Post school hours activities may suffer a whole lot.
Extended Days
Another way of utilizing school buildings is extending the school hours.
Pros
With extended days, Students can get more instructional time.
Longer schools hours can provide students more time to study, the more the students study, the more they will absorb.
Teachers can get more time to cover the curriculum. Give full insight of the lesson. Involve students in projects.
Beneficial for the unemployed people as school teens will not get time for an after school job or a summer job.
Cons
After schools activities like sports, theatre, etc. are affected badly, as they are cut short.
Kids and parents will get less time to spend together as a consequence of which, kids will miss quality time with their families.
On a broader spectrum, it can have economic impacts too, as there would be lesser people visiting recreational areas, vacation spots and resorts.
Teens would not be able to earn extra cash, as they will not be able to work after the schools hours.
Double Shifts.
Double shift schooling is one more way of utilizing the school buildings more fully. The pros and cons are given below.
Pros;
Double shifts or multiple shifts are considered to be the best way of maximum utilization of the schools buildings.
The system creates jobs for teachers, and other non teaching staff.
As both the shifts use same infrastructure and other assets, maintenance cost is lowered while controlling the fixed cost.
The saved funds can be utilized in the form of enriched libraries and modern laboratories.
‘Single-shift schooling is like an expensive car, and double-shift schooling is like a modest car. The expensive car is luxurious, but both vehicles carry their passengers where they want to go. Expensive cars do not necessarily give good value for money. For many people, modest cars represent the most appropriate investment.’
(Anonymous)
Cons;
Students may not be able to give desired output as longer days can make them lethargic, due to which the might lose interest in studies.
Hiring teaching and non teaching staff separately can increase the Variable cost of the institution.
The wear and tear of the school equipment will be doubled as it would be used twice a day.
