The continuous school day: how the pandemic is accelerating a regressive social and educational model

The morning-only (continuous) school day has spread rapidly in many public schools across Spain over the last 30 years. Although there are no official data, the most recent surveys show that the morning-only (continuous) schedule is the majority model in public pre-primary and primary schools.

The pandemic is accelerating this type of school day and is very likely to continue doing so over the coming years. Using data from a survey of 2,147 teachers, we observe how the epidemiological measures introducing morning-only schedules in some regions increased the proportion of schools on a morning-only schedule during the pandemic: this has led many schools with a full or split day (approximately 44.5%) to debate changing their schedule for the next school year, and a significant share of them (28.7%) to hold votes to do so.

In Spain, the debate on the school day is partial and sometimes ignores the scientific evidence on the matter. We review the three dimensions affected by the school day:

→ For students, there is no rigorous evidence on the effect of the type of school day (for a given number of teaching hours) on academic performance, although some correlational studies suggest that the full (or split) day is associated with better results. What does exist is abundant and robust evidence that time (both teaching and non-teaching) at school has a positive impact on students in academic and socio-emotional terms; and also that the full (or split) day, with an early lunch and a break afterwards, is better suited to students’ biorhythms and improves their health, sleep cycles and well-being.

→ For families, the scientific evidence points to a key factor usually ignored in Spain (and key to gender equality), but which the pandemic has brought to light: schools also have a fundamental childcare function. When school is part-time, families’ employment suffers, as it makes it difficult for their working hours to exceed 25 or 28 hours a week. For the first time, using data from the Living Conditions Survey (ECV), we estimate the effect of the morning-only (continuous) school day compared with the full day on family employment. We show that the continuous school day has a negative and significant effect on family income and employment, which is especially large for mothers, who bear 66.4% of the impact, thereby helping to widen existing gender gaps. It also means a loss of 8,048 million euros in income for families every year.

→ As for teachers, they are the group that benefits most from a morning-only (continuous) school day, both in terms of well-being and work-life balance. In the survey conducted, this group is mostly in favour of the morning-only (continuous) school day; and, paradoxically, it highlights the benefits for students and families (rather than for teachers themselves) as the main reasons to justify this type of schedule.

Considering students as the central objective of education policy, there is enormous room to make progress on the type of school organisation to adopt through a rational debate, based on scientific evidence and, at the same time, building consensus that takes the different stakeholders into account. We believe that the benefits of a full-time school day (from 09:00/09:30 to 16:00/16:30) with an early lunch (12:30 or 13:00) and a break for students aged 3 to 12 far outweigh the costs of maintaining or even extending the status quo. After the enormous impact the pandemic has had on the mental health and emotional well-being of the school community (students, teachers and families), the response should not be to reduce time at school, but to extend it. The spread of the morning-only schedule is happening while the available evidence on its harmful effects on students and families is being denied. Other alternatives to the continuous school day should therefore be developed that also make it feasible to compensate teachers for the sharp deterioration in their working conditions over the last decade (first with the financial crisis and then with the pandemic).

We propose an investment plan derived from the enormous economic benefits of full-time pre-primary and primary education. We estimate an increase of approximately 1,200 million euros in personal income tax revenue from the widespread adoption of a full-time school day, which could be used to guarantee this type of school day and make it politically viable. It would include three main public investment items:

→ Expanding the coverage and amount of school meal grants to reach 40% of all students.

→ Developing and improving school infrastructure in public pre-primary and primary schools to make it possible to have a canteen in every school in the medium and long term.

→ Compensating teachers with a salary supplement for increasing the hours they spend at school.