MP proposes schools remain open until night-time
A NSW Liberal MP has proposed that Australian schools should remain open until 6pm to better accommodate “modern employment”.
During his maiden speech to parliament, Member for Ryde Jordan Lane said that "local schools should become hubs for after-school activity”, where the government guarantees that a child can remain on school campuses after 3pm.
"It affords parents flexibility, while at the same time making school a place for extracurricular excellence," he said.
"By engaging providers and community organisations, we avoid overworking our tirelessly hardworking teachers but expose more children to rounded experiences, such as coding classes, culture and language, art, dance, music and sport.
"I care deeply about the academic results that our students are able to achieve, and about ensuring they can compete on a global stage, but I care even more that our education system helps us to create a new generation of Australians with the content of character we need to be successful as a country.”
The move could lead to an extra year of education as a result of the extended hours of teaching, Lane added.
"Greater flexibility for parents, a productivity and employment boost to the state, financial relief from the high cost of child care and an injection of hope for potential but reluctant parents who, like me, struggle to rationalise how to afford, in terms of both time and money, children, a home and equal employability between partners," he said.
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