For students taking final exams, in the 9th, 11th and 12th grades, the school year always ends earlier. This year, the last class was on June 6th and the other grades went on vacation at the end of the following week, on June 13th.

As in previous school years, the exception was preschool and primary school children who only said goodbye to school on Friday, the 27th, a discrepancy criticized by the National Federation of Teachers (Fenprof), which sees no pedagogical justification for it.

“This extension of school hours only serves the interest of keeping children busy, solving social problems and responding to the needs of families, without any real educational purpose,” the federation wrote in a statement.

In Fenprof’s view, the current school calendar, which has also been set for the next three school years, does not respect the pace of children’s learning and overloads students and teachers with “excessive time for teaching activities.”

“The differentiation in the academic calendar between the school cycles exacerbates inequalities and disregards the needs, first and foremost, of these children, but also of the professionals who work with them,” argue the teachers’ representatives.

On the other hand, the federation also cites the high temperatures usually recorded at the end of June, which it says are incompatible with the conditions of many schools and with the “well-being of such young children.”

Fenprof therefore advocates harmonizing the school calendar so that classes end at the same time for all students who do not take final exams – that is, all elementary school students, with the exception of the 9th and 10th grades – and new solutions for leisure time as an alternative to meet the needs of families.

Two weeks ago, Fenprof asked the government to negotiate the organization of the next school year, whose school calendar was defined a year ago, as well as the schedule for the following two school years.