Should Secondary Schools be Started 30 Minutes Later?

As students' schedules are packed with more and more activities, they start to face deprivation of sleep, along with other issues. The problem of later school start time is highly debated due to this. Some suggest that later school start times can help students to sleep better and perform well, while others argue that this may be impossible to achieve, since normal schedules will be disrupted. The question remains, whether secondary schools should be started 30 minutes later?

An undeniable advantage of this is the extended time to sleep. According to an article from Nationwide Children's Hospital, the average sleeping time for teenagers is 7 hours, 2 hours less than recommended. By allowing teenagers to sleep more, students will be more alert in lessons, improving their academic performance.

Another benefit of later school start hours is the decrease of alone time for students. Some students, whose parents have long working hours, tend to be left at home for several hours. These students have a higher risk to be involved in unhealthy activities, such as smoking and drinking. If the dismissal time of schools are later due to this policy, they will have less alone time, which contributes greatly to their physical and mental health.

However, activities such as ECAs, sports trainings and tutoring will be interupted. The daytime hours are decreased if schools start later and end later then current situations. ECAs and sports trainings will be cancelled or shortened, resulting in less time for teenagers to relax and develop in different skills. In addition to this, tutoring classes need to be rearranged, which is difficult as most tutors do not have flexable schedules.

Meanwhile, the schedules of most families will be disrupted. If parents leave home early due to work, students will have to go to school on their own, which is problematic for students who live far away. Family schedules, which are adapted to school hours, need to be adjusted and modified, which will be hard for them to adapt at first. Additional cost for transportation will be produced.

All in all, schools starting 30 minutes later does more harm than good, since multiple activities, from tutoral classes to transport, will be disrupted by new arrangements. Therefore, disculpine for earlier sleeping hours should be encouraged instead of later school starting hours.