There is a school of thought that believes kids don’t seem to be in school as much these days.
Shortened school years, professional development days, administration days and teacher conferences have crept into the school year and are whittling away the time children spend in school.
Exactly, concur some parents.
“When we talk to parents, almost without exception, their memory seems to be that the school year was longer,” said Ivan Yackel, director of education for Saskatchewan’s North East School Division. “And there was always much more (student-teacher) contact time.”
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Precisely, agree parents.
“And yet mathematically, I don’t think that can be proven to be true,” Yackel added.
Among the three prairie provinces, there has been little change in the school calendar. Since the 1970s, the number of legislated days in Saskatchewan’s school year has varied by only three days.
In Manitoba, the school year has changed by only four days in the last 40 years.
Manitoba and Saskatchewan require schools to operate 196 and 197 days per year, respectively.
Alberta’s provincial legislation is different since the school year is organized by hours rather than days.
But it’s the same pattern: going back 30 years Alberta children have been required to attend school either 950 or 1,000 hours per year, depending on age.
But just because schools’ doors are open doesn’t mean kids are in classes learning from teachers.
Manitoba Education, for instance, allows school divisions and teachers 10 days of non-instructional time to be used throughout the year. Five of these days must be used for professional development and the other five for administration.
Parent-teacher days and teachers’ conferences are also included within the 10.
This means the actual instruction time for Manitoban children is 186 days per year. Do parents’ feelings of reduced school time come from an increase in non-instructional days, like professional development and administration?
“There haven’t been significant changes (in non-instructional days) over time,” says Domino Winkins,
superintendent of schools for Manitoba’s Garden Valley School Division, who has worked at the divisional level for more than 20 years.
Winkins said there have been minor changes in non-instructional days over his career, but nothing dramatic. And he said five days is a reasonable amount of time to dedicate to professional development, which he characterizes as important.
“If knowledge about the world doubles every 18 months, how do you keep up with current knowledge?” he said.
In Garden Valley’s school year, certain days are for staff meetings and students are sent home early.
“What happens is we close an hour before the official closing of the school. However, we have added to the length of the day throughout the year to compensate for that time,” Wilkins said.
Since each of Saskatchewan’s 28 school divisions sets its own school calendar, it is difficult to know exactly if and where non-instructional time has changed. But if Yackel’s 30 years of director experience are any indication, the answer is: not too much.
“It’s probably ranged from a low of about eight to a high of about 13 (days),” he said.
Yackel remembers when computers came into use, some professional development days were added to ensure that teachers could use and teach kids about that new technology.
Asked about the risk of non-instructional days creeping into the school year, he is nonchalant.
“I don’t think so. It’s something that’s pretty jealously guarded by boards of education. They tend to get a fair bit of feedback from parents when students are out (of class). Sometimes that feedback is about the loss of instructional time, but in all honesty we’ve also become a child-care service,” Yackel said.
While students receive approximately the same amount of instruction time as they always have, parents’ idea that there is less class time isn’t totally misplaced.
Superintendent Garry Andrews said several communities in Alberta’s Palliser Regional School Division have a four-day school week. Students in Milo, Champion and Brandt never have school on Fridays.
“In part, it was connected to the rural nature of people needing to go into the urban centres regularly for things like doctor’s appointments, dentist appointments and things of that nature,” he said.
Transportation is another factor. Buses pick up elementary and junior high students first, and then high school students, meaning the younger children’s day is longer.
While those students have 164 instructional days – 22 days less than Manitoba schools – they still satisfy Alberta Education’s required 950 hours per year. As in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 10 extra non-instructional days are used for professional development.
Students are doing well despite being in school for fewer days, Andrews said.
“If there were any indication that student achievement was suffering, school boards would probably move pretty quickly to change that,” he added.
