MUMBAI: The average eighth grader in India spends a cumulative 130 hours more in school in an academic year than his or her peers in an OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) country, reveals an analysis of global data. In other words, Indian secondary students pack in nearly 21 days of six-hour classes more than those in advanced countries.
The issue of ideal school hours is being heatedly debated ever since the Maharashtra government held up the Right to Education Act mandating that schools needed to adhere to certain minimum hours of instruction time. The act requires students from first to fifth grade to spend 200 days involving 800 instructional hours in school and those from sixth to eighth standard to receive 1,000 instructional hours over 220 days.
In contrast, OECD primary and secondary students spend 749 and 873 hours on compulsory education on an average.
Primary school students in India are better off than their secondary counterparts, but still spend 51 hours more in classrooms than their OECD counterparts.
Arriving at ideal school hours has remained a contentious issue around the globe. Parents in cities like Mumbai are dreading the prospect of sending their children to school on weekends ever since the Maharashtra government brought out the rule book. Ironically, India's longer school hours have been cited by US authorities to make a case for keeping their schools open for longer. US' education secretary Arne Duncan had in 2009 stated that US students were at a "competitive disadvantage" as their students stayed in school for shorter hours than Indian and Chinese students.
Schoolhours then vary significantly across the globe with secondary students in countries like Finland spending as little as 777 hours in a year to those in Mexico spending upto a gruelling 1,167 hours per year.
Indian kids spend too much time at school? - The Times of India
The issue of ideal school hours is being heatedly debated ever since the Maharashtra government held up the Right to Education Act mandating that schools needed to adhere to certain minimum hours of instruction time. The act requires students from first to fifth grade to spend 200 days involving 800 instructional hours in school and those from sixth to eighth standard to receive 1,000 instructional hours over 220 days.
In contrast, OECD primary and secondary students spend 749 and 873 hours on compulsory education on an average.
Primary school students in India are better off than their secondary counterparts, but still spend 51 hours more in classrooms than their OECD counterparts.
Arriving at ideal school hours has remained a contentious issue around the globe. Parents in cities like Mumbai are dreading the prospect of sending their children to school on weekends ever since the Maharashtra government brought out the rule book. Ironically, India's longer school hours have been cited by US authorities to make a case for keeping their schools open for longer. US' education secretary Arne Duncan had in 2009 stated that US students were at a "competitive disadvantage" as their students stayed in school for shorter hours than Indian and Chinese students.
Schoolhours then vary significantly across the globe with secondary students in countries like Finland spending as little as 777 hours in a year to those in Mexico spending upto a gruelling 1,167 hours per year.
Indian kids spend too much time at school? - The Times of India
