Education. School Schedules: Should Short School Holidays Be Reduced?

Two weeks at All Saints' Day, two at Christmas, two in February, and two at Easter. What if short vacations were the Achilles heel of French school schedules? While the citizens' convention on "children's time" met this weekend to formulate its initial proposals for a report expected by the President of the Republic at the end of November, the OECD is contributing to the discussion on the subject. In its report "Regards sur l'Éducation" (Views on Education), published this Tuesday, it compared our school calendar with those of other countries. As a result, contrary to popular belief, our summer vacations are no longer than those of other countries: they last around eight weeks, less than the average for OECD countries (8.7 weeks) and the average for European Union countries (9.5 weeks). When it comes to public holidays, France is no exception, with 11 days per year, one less than the OECD average.

On the other hand, where our country stands out is in the frequency and duration of intermediate holidays. With eight cumulative weeks of short breaks over the year, France significantly exceeds the OECD average (around five weeks). It is among the third of OECD countries that have at least four school holiday periods during the year in addition to the summer holidays. And with two weeks each time. "In most other countries, school holidays during the year are much shorter. We can take the example of Iceland or Croatia where there are only two holiday periods during the year for a total of three weeks during the year," notes Etienne Albiser, an OECD analyst.

This recurrence of short vacations has an impact on learning conditions. At the same time, French students spend more time in class than their foreign peers: 864 hours per year in elementary school (compared to 804 hours for the OECD average) and 973 hours per year in middle school (compared to 909 hours).

"France is very atypical in its school organization. Students will receive more hours of lessons over a condensed number of weeks. In addition, 80% of elementary school students have four days of school per week. While in the average OECD country, classes are spread over five days," emphasizes Eric Charbonnier. This over-condensation of the school year is all the more tiring as students spend a lot of time on the fundamentals. According to Eric Charbonnier, "we should think about a school organization that gives students who are struggling time to catch up." That is, a school year with perhaps slightly fewer short vacations, but shorter school days to allow students to concentrate better. It now remains to be seen whether the citizens' convention on "children's time" will propose amending this unique calendar, at the risk of disrupting a deeply rooted school organization.