By Christine Cheng Jason, a Taiwanese high school student, is preparing for his college entrance exam. A common day of his life happens as follows. Jason wakes up at 6 o’clock, buys his breakfast on his way to the train station, and rushes to catch the train in order to be at school at 7:30. After the bell rings, Jason tries to eat his breakfast while taking a test. Next, he is asked to stay at school for almost ten hours – including lunchtime, a ten-minute break between lessons, and an extra class for examinees. Once Jason finishes school at about 5 o’clock, he eats his dinner and takes lessons in a cram school until 8 o’clock. When Jason arrives home at almost 9 o’clock, he still has to do his homework for an hour and study for tomorrow’s test. Finally, Jason goes to bed at midnight. Being a student in Taiwan, Jason’s life is occupied by school and tests. If Jason had time, he would want to sleep more than six hours. If he had a chance, he would want to enjoy a meal with his family. As a sleep-deprived student, too, I think the government can recognize this problem and start reducing school hours, and I will explain how long school hours can harm students’ academic performance as well as their mental health. First, spending more time in school doesn’t necessarily result in higher scores. Unlike students in Taiwan, students in Japan and Finland spend only six hours at school per day; however, according to the Program for International Student Assessment, students in Japan and Finland outperform Taiwanese students in both reading and math. On the other hand, American students spend seven hours at school per day, but their grades are surpassed by France, Australia, Estonia, and many countries that have far fewer school hours. This result shows that having long school hours doesn’t necessarily result in better grades and that students can still perform well while having shorter school hours. Hence, as long as the Taiwanese government plans the school schedule well, students can still learn after decreasing the number of school hours.
Furthermore, long school hours can result in fatigue and sleep deprivation and therefore be counterproductive to improving students’ grades. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, teenagers aged fourteen to seventeen need eight to ten hours of sleep every night, while students in Taiwan only get six to seven hours. Most students in Taiwan have to be at school for eight to nine hours and have plenty of homework to do when they get home, thereby decreasing students’ time to sleep. Students who don’t get enough sleep might doze off or lose their attention easily and feel too tired to concentrate and participate in classes, making the classes useless. Moreover, students who lose focus in classes need more after-school time to study to make up for what they missed in class, creating a vicious circle of staying up late to study and losing focus in classes. Moreover, long school hours not only cause damage to the student’s academic performance but also result in poor mental health. According to Auckland Physiotherapy, resting can improve focus and creativity and help our brains refresh. When students are asked to stay at school for nine to ten hours, having hobbies and spending quality time with their families can be challenging. Students aren’t able to relax and recharge while coping with the ongoing stress of taking important exams. This stress can cause multiple mental health issues and overwhelm students. By decreasing school hours, students can have more time to rest and enjoy leisure activities that are good for their mental health. All kinds of schools show the same purpose of providing a suitable environment for students to learn, preparing students for the knowledge they need, and helping them learn while having good mental health. But the long school hours in Taiwan are bad for studying because of the fatigue they cause and many mental health issues. So it is time for the government to reschedule school hours in Taiwan and bring back the time that students should have had in the beginning. a
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The Taida Student Journal has been active since 1995 with an ever-changing roster of student journalists at NTU. Click the above link to read about the authors Archives
May 2024
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