Do school holidays need to be shorter? Sorry, parents: TDs don't think so

AS THE SCHOOL year officially enters wind-down mode, the annual conversation around the length of summer holidays has ratcheted back up. 

The yearly juggle of working parents trying to keep their children and teenagers safe and entertained over the summer months, while also keeping their own heads above water at work, has led to some calls for a review of the length of the summer holidays. 

At two months for primary schools and three months for secondary schools, some parents say that the holidays are just too long and incompatible with modern family life.

Writing in the Irish Examiner on Friday, columnist Stephanie Park argued that when most households now need two incomes to survive, and modern employment does not have the capacity to absorb extended leave, the school holidays should simply be shorter.

But is there any appetite for change at a political level?

Not on the Oireachtas Education and Youth Committee anyway.

The Journal caught up with a number of TDs on the committee, and for all the children reading this, you will be glad to hear none are in favour of an outright reduction the length of the summer holidays. 

Many, though, do believe that more needs to be done to support parents over the summer months. 

Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins told us that as a parent of four kids, this is something she has long thought about. 

It is an absolute juggle, and you don’t know whether you’re coming or going.

“You’re trying to use your leave, you’re thinking, ‘Am I going to get them into camps?’, it’s incredibly expensive,” Cummins said. 

The Dublin South Central TD said there is a “smorgasbord” of summer camps that children can go to, but for some households, they are often too expensive.

She said it is an issue she would like to see the Oireachtas Education Committee look at, and in particular, for it to explore ways that summer camps can be made more affordable for families. 

Cummins said a conversation is merited on how the entire school calendar is handled, but that this needs to be done in conjunction with unions. 

“The intensity of the school day is very, very high in Ireland… I do think we need to examine it, but that would have to come from teachers and unions,” she said. 

Fine Gael TD Catherine Callaghan, a former SNA and member of the Defence Forces, said she doesn’t believe that extending the academic year is the answer. 

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For teenagers, Callaghan suggested that part-time jobs could help fill the time and “take a headache away from some parents”.

“And it could be good for young people as well,” she said. 

For younger children, Callaghan said that State-supported camps focused on STEM or other hands-on subjects might be a good idea to support both parents and children. 

She added that, as a person with a particular interest in defence and national security, she believes it would be a great opportunity to have summer camps focused on these sorts of issues. 

“That would help the State obviously in the long run as well as hard-pressed parents,” Callaghan said. 

She did, however, stress that it is important for children and young people to have rest from the academic year.

‘School staff need the break’

Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Shónagh Ní Raghallaigh and Fianna Fáil’s Cathal Crowe (who is chairperson of the committee) were in agreement that the length of the school holidays should not be touched.

“The summer holidays are long, and I understand why that is challenging for many families, but children and school staff also need that break,” Ní Raghallaigh told The Journal.

She believes the answer is not to shorten the holidays, but to instead strengthen and expand the existing summer programme for children with additional needs and those at risk of educational disadvantage.

She noted that last year, 1,800 schools and 71,000 students availed of the summer programme and said the concept is a good one that should be built on.

Crowe said that, as a former school teacher himself, he believes that it is important to give young people the “headspace” they get in the summer.

“I just think we need to back off and leave them have their summer holidays as they are,” he said.

“I think we overload our young people, basically, and I do think summer holidays are really important… and essential from a child’s development point of view,” the Clare TD said.

He suggested that a better way to support parents might be to introduce some sort of financial support towards childcare in the summer.

“I don’t think we need to do a huge reinventing of the wheel here. The debate that happens around summer holidays, and teachers on leave and children on leave, it has happened forever, and it will always happen. 

“And even if we bring in more financial support, you’ll still have the debate going on.

“I think we need to decouple the two. It’s probably more a thing of childcare costs as opposed to whether we make the school year longer,” Crowe said.

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