In many countries, primary and secondary schools close for two months or more in the summer holidays. What is the value of long school holidays? What are the arguments in favour of shorter school holidays?

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In many countries, primary and secondary schools close for two months or more in the summer holidays.

What is the value of long school holidays?

What are the arguments in favour of shorter school holidays?

Schools remain closed for up to two months in numerous countries. Extended breaks can help students with several educational and psychological benefits. At the same time, shorter holidays can result in better academic performance and social cohesion among students.

On the one hand, long breaks certainly carry some benefits. Firstly, these breaks allow learners to revise and relearn things covered in the academic year. Without such breaks, they always focus on things that the next exam will cover, completely forgetting many of the things they have spent years learning. This is especially true for cramming, where students focus mostly on new information to memorize that is going to be a part of the assessment. With longer breaks, they can easily revise already accumulated information and try to apply it in real-life scenarios. Secondly, schooling can be taxing for learners due to heavy workload and fierce competition. These holidays allow them to rest, and come back to school with a real sense of renewed motivation and energy. These psychological benefits are hard to achieve in short holidays.

On the other hand, short breaks can also be advantageous in certain aspects. While long breaks may lead students to revise many of the lessons, they take away so much time that can be spent actively learning. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence and numerous technological developments, even primary and secondary students need to keep working hard to get any advantage they can in this competitive world. Continued learning without such extensive breaks has been shown to work tremendously well for improved academic performance. Furthermore, students at this level also learn socialization skills and make friends. With shorter breaks, they do not need to look for friends in their neighbourhood or any camps they may join. They can rely on their peers, leading to fulfilling friendships that last for decades.

To conclude, both long and short breaks benefit primary and secondary students in various ways. While extended holidays lead to better retention of learning and offer psychological benefits, the latter allow them to perform better in both academic and social scenarios.

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