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Copying the long Chinese school day could have unintended consequences
A recent study by the OECD shows that on average, pupils in Shanghai aged 12-14 spend 9.8 hours on learning in the classroom, and 3 hours finishing their homework each day, averaging 13.8 hours per week. This is far more than the OECD average of 1.2 hours per day. More than 65% of pupils get up between 6am to 6:30am and go to bed between 10pm to 11:30pm.But the key question being asked by many in the UK and elsewhere is whether more learning time at school translate into better pupil attainment. In my view, the answer is no. Simply increasing the number of teaching hours, shortening the school holidays, and copying East Asian educational experiences cannot improve pupil performance. After all, there are tremendous differences between the education systems, social features and historical background of UK and China. The East Asian educational experience comes as a package, so increasing pupil’s learning time has questionable merit just on its own.