School days should run from 9am to 5pm, so that parents can hold fulltime jobs?

On average, everyone disagrees with significant nonconsensus between 439 voters.

Reasons To Disagree

Children should not be held in school for such long hours - it will not be beneficial to them as they don't have the capacity to be alert for so long, and besides - lets let them enjoy some of the freedoms and time of childhood. A working life is bad enough, without imposing the same hours on people during their infancy!

Schools are there to provide education, they are not babysitters. Children can't do lessons for this length of time. It is a ridiculous waste of money to pay teachers to do this role and would significantly impact on teacher shortages.

School is not a baby sitter. Children learn in all areas of life and those at primary school after 3pm need to play with others, do sports ,art,brownies etc, have a bite to eat and a talk with Mum, learn about money by shopping, learn about gardening, running the home,traffic safety, bike rides, playing at the park, to behave in a cafe/restaurant, conversing with other adults (Mums friends/family/shopassistants). This is how children become socially adept and well rounded individuals NOT caged for hours in a school.

We should spend more time with our families.If we have school from 9-5pm children are going to be tired and grumpy and will have to be put to bed earlier. They won't have any energy to play sport, play with their friends and do other important activities. That's why I believe we shouldn't have school from 9-5pm.

It would be better if the hours were not in synch with working hours due to the impact of school travel on the roads - I'm from Auckland

School days should be run in whatever way best benefits the child. It's a tragedy that mothers of younger children have been seduced into the work force. The incredible thing is that it is so-called "feminists" (and socialists) who have caused this situation.

You'll be pushing students away from school. Students who dont like school will hate it even more! Buses and rush hour at the same time. NOOOOOO!

I love it....Its idiots like you that think life is easyer these days for teens...more is expected of us . I want this to happen though, because id love to see the retaliation....you think we would stand for this?

Being a school student myself it is already agonizing to still come home to do homework and assignments; if this were to happen then students would then 'work 8 hour days' and still have assisgnments and deadlines to stick to and it can be overwelming, sometimes causing some people to want to commit suicide - me being an example.

i disagree with that because then it won't b dem dat wil av 2 stay at skewl learning about boring stuff

NO NO NO NO NO!!! I remember being a child and loving the freedom of school... this one ties to the government making it so parents HAVE to work. My mum was an at home mum and i had the BEST upbringing... i feel bad that not all children will have the same... i reckon children are stressed right at birth and who wouldnt be.. working 9 til 5 right from 3 months old!

There is no way I could live in such a world where young children are made to mimick the same hours of study as their parents work. They're children, let them be so.

Schools are for educating not babysitting. Get a life.

ABSOLUTELY NOT schools are there to provide and education and trust me teachers are underpaid and over worked, and i would know as i am a teacher my self. The govt would have to fork out billions more to pay teachers

What a disgusting an incomprehensible thought... Children are CHILDREN who need and deserve the right to run around and live life! not be forced to be in a classroom - let alone those poor teachers who already have enough to do!

no1 likes school

We barely get to spend time with our children as it is...lets not make it worse! My kid thinks she spends way too much time at school already,if its incresed they would hate school and this would have a negitive affect on their education.

i fink dat day shoodint coz itz dumn :) hphahahah

no need to come home regular time fight for childern!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Students will not be able to pay attend for that long. I may cause more problems in school, and the attendance rate may drop

oh my god please no!

NO WAY!! They are working hard enough to sit still, to read, to write, to study, to make friends, to fight off bullies, to find friends, to listen, to enjoy things, they are children who need to be children!! Children dont see there parents because they are off working, and teachers also have a life beyond the classroom!

NO. Schools are to educate not babysit! Yes, you should spend most of the weekday at school, but not all of the weekday!! We need some freedom in life! AND this is forcing more parents not to spend more time with their kids!! It would place extra stress and work on the teachers who already have so much to do and a life besides teaching children!!

We need to think about our children's lives too, not just about ours. Childhood doesn't last long and is supposed to be the most enjoyable part of your life when for once you have absolutely no stress or worries, so let's not make school even more boring for them by adding an extra two hours.

Reasons To Agree

I agree but it shouldnt be all school maybe life coaching classes or eestem classes or sport.

Society has changed, most households have both parents working. Schools need to take a time leap into the 21st century and extend their day to reflect the change in todays families. They are out of touch

I reluctantly agree.The Govt, thru WINZ rules & the low wage economy is forcing everyone to go to work(in 2 parent families as well as solo parents).Now only the rich are able to have a parent at home for their children to come home to.If the Govt(left OR right wing)is going to persist with this idiocy, then there HAS to be somewhere for kids to be when their parents are at work.At the moment 10 yr olds are coming home to empty homes because their parents are out working.No wonder they're running wild.Successive Govts have caused a lot of the social problems we now have by persisting with this policy of pushing people back to work, instead of letting them be parents, probably the most valuable job of all.

More learning for our children and less time with TV or hanging out on the streets is a nice thought. The first objective would be to engage our children in positive activity while giving the parents more freedom to work if they need or want to.

I have personally been through a schooling system and had my kids go through a schooling system that works from 9 to 5 and I highly recommend it. Each teacher was responsible for teaching either a sport or a hobby and each child had to participate in at least 2 sports a week and either do sport or a hobby or activities on the other days. There was also time in the afternoon for supervised homework - much better as there is a teacher or two to ask when they dont know what they are doing!!! It will keep children off the streets and out of trouble, allow parents to work without worrying what the kids are up to, supervise the children so that they are active and therefore obesity tends to tend a backseat. Finally, after school care is expensive for parents. If sports were done at school then there would be less rushing around after work with parents trying to get their darlings to the various activities and leave more quality time for parent/child interaction.

What happened to the good old days when they were shoved up a chimney as sson as they sould walk?

Not just for parents income but also for the benefit of the education of the pupil

children will spend more time in education

Very good Idea Im sure there holidays get longer and longer each year

change schools to 7 days for 4 weeks and have 1 week off , a 5 week cycle

I would rather prefer 9.30am to 4.30pm like you do in Great Britain, and this would be mean more homework and children more independent than ever before.