The Covid triggers the continuous day: seven out of 10 schools have a schedule that makes parents lose 8,000 million a year

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Seven out of 10 schools in Spain have already implemented the continuous schedule.

The Covid-19 pandemic has chronicled a model that has negative effects on employment.

According to the first study that analyzes the impact of the children's school day on the parents' employment situation, classes only in the morning cause families to lose

million euros each year.

The think tank

publishes today an investigation that indicates that this loss of income is concentrated by 66% in mothers, who are the ones who mostly stop working or reduce their working hours to care for their children who leave school early.

This money that is not paid in is equivalent to a lower income tax collection of

per year, according to calculations made from the microdata of the

Lucas Gortázar

, director of Education at EsadeEcPol and one of the authors of the study, explains that the intensive schedule -an "organizational rarity" in other countries- was present in

of centers before the pandemic and has now increased to

. , according to the survey they have carried out in Infant and Primary schools throughout Spain.

The Basque Country is the only region that resists and opts for the split day, which means giving classes in the morning and in the afternoon, with more recess, early lunch and a longer break after eating.

The authors ask to return to this traditional split schedule or, at least, that the decision is not made individually in each school, but rather that it be adopted in the regional ministries taking into account the available scientific evidence.

Less exposure time to screens

In addition to the labor, conciliation and gender equality arguments, they add that the conventional schedule is more beneficial for the students.

They point out that, although there is still no robust scientific literature on the relationship between the type of day and the academic results of students, "the evidence does clearly show that spending more time at school has a positive effect on student performance and well-being. student body".

They cite several international studies that indicate that more hours at school are associated with improvements in learning and behavior, as well as greater emotional balance, less screen time and fewer teenage pregnancies.

"A morning school day is a source of educational and social inequalities in students," indicates the study, which ensures that intensive hours are also associated with "less participation in extracurricular activities" and less use of the dining room.

They show works that prove that younger children function better with a midday nap and that adolescents attend more in the afternoon, peculiarities that the continuous day does not allow.

However, it is the teachers' favorite time.

"I have no doubt that teachers really believe that the continuous day favors students more, but important decisions are being made without taking scientific data into account," warns

, vice-dean of the University's Faculty of Education Autonomous University of Madrid and another of the authors of the study.

The report states that, with the 1,200 million euros collected in taxes for a return to the split day, a salary supplement of

euros per year can be given to teachers so that they increase their hours of permanence in the centers from 30 to 35 , in addition to putting a dining room in each school and increasing scholarships.

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