[michael21]

http://news.sky.com/story/1079956/go...chool-holidays

England's schoolchildren should have shorter holidays and spend more time in the classroom, Michael Gove has declared.

The Education Secretary called for longer school days and term times, warning that the current system is out of date and fit for the agricultural economy of the 19th century.

Mr Gove said pupils are at a "significant handicap" compared to youngsters in East Asian nations, who benefit from extra tuition and support from teachers.

"We've noticed in Hong Kong and Singapore and other East Asian nations that expectations of mathematical knowledge or of scientific knowledge at every stage are more demanding than in this country," he told a Spectator conference in central London.

"In order to reach those levels of achievement a higher level of effort is expected on behalf of students, parents and teachers.

"School days are longer, school holidays are shorter. The expectation is that to succeed, hard work is at the heart of everything."

Mr Gove added: "If we look at the length of the school day in England, the length of the summer holiday and we compare it to the extra tuition and support children are receiving elsewhere then we are fighting, or running, in this global race in a way which ensures we already start with a significant handicap."

He later said that he wanted to see schools introduce a longer day for pupils, which he pointed out was already happening in some of the best British schools.

Mr Gove said the Government's changes to teachers' pay, terms and conditions would mean they could be paid more for taking on extra duties.

This would allow headteachers to organise their staff "in a way to get more out of young people", he claimed.

"It may be that there are one or two legislative or bureaucratic obstacles that prevent all schools from moving in this direction but I think it's consistent with the pressures of a modern society," he said.

He insisted that changes to term times and the school day would be "family friendly".

"I think it's the case that the structure of the school term and the school day were designed at a time when we had an agricultural economy," he said.

"Half-term in October, when I was at school in Aberdeen it was called 'tattie holiday' because it was the period when children went into the fields to pick potatoes.

"It was also fixed on a world where a majority of mums stayed home. That world no longer exists and we can't afford to have an education system that essentially its hours were set in the 19th century."

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