Should School Holidays Be Shorter

School holidays are a great time when students get time off classrooms to relax and ponder over the previous semester’s work.  Holiday time is a very important time for a student.First of all, holidays are the only time when a student is free to perform personal tasks.  Usually the curriculum is so intense that at school, a student cannot afford to do personal activities such as doing one’s hobbies.  For example, although there is time for sports in school, it is limited and for a talented student who would love to exploit his/her talent in, music, art or sports the time is not enough for that  Some students have talents which the need to nurture for example some have musical talents, acting or sports.

  The school environment is very controlled to allow for potential exploitation.  If holidays are prolonged students with special talents can exploit such talents during the holidays.  This time can also be used for learning some new skills such as computers, playing musical instruments or learning foreign languages.

  Therefore prolonging holidays would give a talented student for example, ample time to practice and perfect the skill.The prolonged holidays are an opportunity for college students to get attachments and internships during the holiday.  Employees do not like offering internships for short periods and even if they do, it is not very beneficial for a student to only stay in the work environment for barely 2 months.

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  If the holidays are lengthened, students benefit from the work experiences.    It is easier to find a job on long holidays than short ones, especially for college students some of whom pay their own tuition fees and therefore need enough time to work and save enough.  Again if students are exposed to the job environment, in terms of attachments and part-time jobs, they are more likely to secure jobs later due to the experience gained prior to graduation (Bolton, 1999).According to (Gordon, 1981) the human brain and body requires rest and relaxation in order to recuperate especially after hard work.  Evidently the education system has placed a heavy work load on today’s students.  Therefore, enough rest for students is not only good but it is necessary.  The current holiday duration is not sufficient, given the fact that students spend a lot of time doing academic work before schools close.  Therefore, they need enough time to relax, and this is only possible if holidays are prolonged.  According to (Gordon, 1981) on average, human beings need 8 hours of sleep daily.  However, with very busy academic schedules, pressure to hand in assignments, as well as balancing between academics and extra-curricular makes it impossible for majority of the students to relax when schools are open.  Only during the holidays can most students afford to sleep for about 7-8 hours.  Therefore it is necessary to lengthen holidays.Linda, (1990), notes that people who lack enough relaxation and rest are more likely to fall ill than those who rest for enough durations.  Research has shown that lack of rest and relaxation can significantly slow down an individual’s thinking capacity as well as the concentration span (Bolton, 1999).  Other effects of lack of enough rest are bad moods, impatience and stress.Lengthened holidays afford enough time for learners to improve personal relations.  Relationships require time to build and to fortify.  Therefore, students need that valuable time with their parents.  This is not possible during school days due to the fact that some students are boarders and can only spend quality time with parents during the holidays.  Therefore the holidays should be prolonged.  School going children need mentors and the best mentors are usually the parents in that, they have been with the children for long enough and they can better understand them.Students have other relationships apart from that with family members.  For instance, they have boyfriends and/or girlfriends whom they do not often meet during school days.  Therefore, the best time for the students to have quality time is during holidays and therefore the holidays should be long enough to allow the students enough time for interactions.There are advantages of shortening holidays. By shortening the holidays the students have less time to engage in undesirable behaviour and indiscipline.  Holidays can be the worst time for students who get the chance to meet their peers.  Peer pressure can lead many children to engage in dangerous activities such as substance misuse, irresponsible sex and unwanted pregnancies.  All these result from peer pressure and the longer these peers are allowed to stay together, the greater the risks of engaging in self-destructive behaviour.  Idleness can also cause people to engage in crime and even enter into early marriages.  It is better to shorten the holidays to avoid all these dangers associated with prolonged holidays.The contention that prolonged holidays give students enough time to relax is mistaken.  Instead of using long holidays to relax, the students engage in activities which make them disoriented and very fatigued such that when schools reopen, students take weeks to regain form.  School dropout rates will increase if students are going to be prolonged. The kind of activities, which students engage in during holidays are dangerous and prolonged holidays would mean that when schools open, a lot of them would end up in juvenile prisons due too engaging in criminal activities (Edward, & Berge, 1996).  Therefore the students would never use the prolonged holidays to relax and reduce stress but rather to cause more trouble.Most parents are not at ease when the children are around. They wish for schools to open since most children especially teens tend to show defiance to parents.  Allowing lengthened holidays would lead to more conflicts in the family.  The lengthened holidays would mean the students would spend more time with girlfriends or boyfriends something which can cause them to misbehave or influence one another negatively.  Also the much time allowed by lengthened holidays can lead to friends influencing one another in a negative manner and a good number may end up in pre mature marriages and pregnancies.ConclusionThere is a need to prolong the holidays as the merits of lengthened holidays far much outweigh the demerits shortening the holidays. The holidays need to be prolonged to offer students enough time for personal activities, for relaxation and leisure, for family time and to take participate in hobbies.