Should high schools stay open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.?

Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault wants longer days for high school students to better reflect the modern family's work schedule. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

The Coalition Avenir Québec wants to change high school operation hours to help teach students another lesson about the real world: the eight-hour work day.

The party says it would adjust secondary-school hours to run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. if it wins the election in order to better reflect the schedule of modern families, and also to help fight the province's high dropout rate.

Party leader François Legault took aim at Jean Charest's Liberals on Thursday by criticizing the province's high secondary-school drop-out rate. The extended hours would allow more time for homework help and additional extra-curricular activities.

"Those famous yellow buses wouldn't leave at 3:30 p.m. anymore. They'll leave schools at 5 p.m.," Legault said at a campaign stop north of Montreal.

Legault said he wants to reduce teenagers' sedentary lifestyle after school and keep them from sitting around the house watching television or playing video games unsupervised before their parents get home from work.

"The dropout rates in Quebec are too high. [We're] talking around 20 per cent," he said. "We have to do something."

The CAQ's proposed extra school hours would amount to five hours more in school per week, he said.

The measure would be rolled over five years and cost $290 million when fully implemented. He said it would be introduced first in poor neighbourhoods with high dropout rates.

He said that teachers wouldn't be forced to work an extra hour, but those who choose to do so would get a pay raise. Legault said the plan would have to be negotiated with teachers' unions.

The promise was greeted skeptically by one teachers' association, which said that many schools already have afternoon programs that are run on a voluntary basis.

The association said a 9-to-5 change across the board would introduce unnecessary logistical changes, including transportation for students in rural areas.

Should high schools stay open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.? Would you support a change either in Quebec or elsewhere in Canada? Why or why not? Do you think it will help reduce high school dropout rates?

With files from the Canadian Press


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