Michael Gove

Hello ladies and gentleman, firstly I would like to begin by thanking you for welcoming me here. Today I will be reviewing your proposal of extending the school day to 10 hours, as it would supposedly shorten the margin between private education and state schooling. I would firstly like to state the fact that this idea is unrealistic, unreasonable and imprudent. The fact that this idea is being proposed is preposterous but nevertheless, I will proceed in dissecting its faults.

I think it’s obvious to begin with the fact that the students will be incredibly exhausted. These long hours that include intense work in lessons followed by the proposed extra curriculum activities in classes of 30 would be unhealthy and unadvisable for students. The students would come back home drained with no energy to spend valuable time with the family. With the ideal 8 hours of sleep a child should receive, that leaves 4 hours of family time while the student is drained and exhausted. It is true that an extended day would strengthen relationships between teacher and student but their families must raise the student up, teachers should not be their babysitters. This system will tore family relations at home and create a harmful relationship between the parents and the child. This is absolutely awful; how would you like to spend an insufficient 4 hours a day with your beloved son or daughter who would be exhausted?

I agree with the fact that private schooling excels and performs significantly better than state schools. However, the length of the school day will not shorten the gap between the two types of schooling. There are many other factors that are in place that explains the success of private schools. Did you know that 37% of state school parents expect their child to go to university compared to the 81% in private schooling? State school children have parents with little or no education compared to the majority of post grad parents in private schools. Students in private education are from a completely different lifestyle; state school children often live in cramped houses with no quite place to learn while private school students live in spacious houses with great resources. These facts are the significant factors that are effective in making students outclass.

As you might have been aware of the incredibly irresponsible act of cutting educational funds by £400 by the same man that proposed the idea that you are considering, this country has scarce money for education. An increased school day would mean in increase in staff that includes teachers and extra curriculum coordinators. Where would we find the money to fund such a thing? The length you are considering will be approximately 50% extra than the current length and that would be incredibly expensive to fund for the teacher’s wages, electricity and even lunches for the students on the free school lunch system. The money needed would be unrealistic, frightening and damaging to the country. Teachers too would be exhausted and adding on to the increasingly unattractive role a teacher has; we would have even more insufficient teachers than we have now.

Extra curriculum activities have been proven to widen children’s perspective and experiences; it also includes sporting activities that would keep the students