Report calls for shorter school holidays

The long school summer holiday should be shortened by a week and a half, the NRC quotes a confidential report as saying.


The report, by a government commission, will be presented to junior education minister Marja van Bijsterveldt on Tuesday.
According to the NRC, the report says that a shorter summer holiday will allow teaching hours in secondary schools to be reduced from the current 1,040 to 1,000 by giving schools more flexibility.
Earlier this year, pupils held demonstrations and signed petitions against the quota of 1,040 hours for secondary schools. At the time Bijsterveldt said she would be ‘lenient’ with schools not reaching the quota. She also promised a full investigation into the matter.
If the advice is accepted, pay and working conditions for teaching staff will have to be altered because the number of holidays is laid down in the current agreement.
When education minister Ronald Plasterk said he thought the summer holiday was too long, teachers reacted with fury.

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