Saturday school back on agenda?
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EDUCATION MINISTRY ENCOURAGES SCHOOLS TO SPREAD LESSONS OUT OVER AN EXTRA HALF-DAY TO EASE THE PRESSURE ON PUPILS WEDNESDAY or Saturday morning lessons could be back on the timetable for
schoolchildren from this September, in an apparent U-turn by the government. The Education Ministry has written to local education authorities encouraging them to try out alternative
timetabling from the _rentrée_ - and has suggested spreading lessons over an extra half-day to make each day shorter. The ministry does not go as far as scrapping the four-day week, but
suggests that schools look at ways of rearranging lessons to "improve efficiency and respect a child's rhythm". Saturday morning lessons were scrapped in September 2008 -
giving children all of Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday out of the classroom. The move to a four-day week was optional - but 95% of schools implemented the change. However a report by the
National Academy of Medicine in January found that primary school children were turning up to lessons tired because their timetable was too packed. Doctors said the four-day week, with very
long holidays, did not suit a child's body clock and was harming their ability to learn.