GUIDELINES FOR OPERATION HOURS AT SCHOOLS

GUIDELINES FOR OPERATION HOURS AT SCHOOLS: 20.

Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan asked the Minister for Education (a) whether the Ministry has a set of guidelines for operation hours of primary and secondary schools; and (b) whether it stipulates the frequency of activities that can be held outside of official lessons and the times which these co-curricular activities and supplementary lessons must end.

The Senior Minister of State for Education (:

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien) (for the Minister for Education): Mr Speaker, the Ministry does not stipulate operation hours for schools. However, there are guidelines on formal curriculum hours, which account for the biggest proportion of school hours. For Primary 1 and 2, the guideline is for 48 periods of 30 minutes each per week and for Primary 3 to 6 – 49 periods of 30 minutes each per week. This works out to five hours a day including recess time. For secondary schools, the curriculum time guidelines stipulate 40 periods of 40 minutes each per week. This works out to six hours a day including recess time.

Schools have the autonomy to vary the hours of instruction time based on what is best in the educational interests of their pupils. In addition, as part of holistic education, schools carry out a range of activities outside curriculum

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hours. Schools exercise discretion on the types and frequency of activities to meet the needs of their student populations.

In planning and implementing the different academic and non-academic activities, schools do bear in mind the well-being and workload of teachers and pupils.

Assoc. Prof. Paulin Tay Straughan: Sir, it is not uncommon to have students practise an almost 12-hour school day, where they report to school at about 7.20 am or so, and then by the time they are done with CCAs, it is about 6.00 pm to 6.30 pm, especially for the secondary school students. Will the Ministry of Education consider putting some cap on this because as a parent and as an educator, I am not quite sure if this rate is sustainable, especially for our teachers, clocking 12 hours a day, five days a week?

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: As I have mentioned, the well-being of our teachers and pupils is really our utmost concern. We do not, as a matter of governance, dictate the school operating hours, but from time to time we periodically do a survey of actual operating hours. And we do that quite frequently to ensure that the workload of teachers is manageable and sustainable and, also, the well-being of our students is not forgotten. So, while we do not, as a matter of rule, dictate the hours, we would like to facilitate and allow the schools to have the autonomy to plan around their resources and needs. But we do keep an eye on this issue.