How Much School Is Too Much School? Rethinking the Five-Day School Week in J&K

✒️ :. Ikkz Ikbal

The ongoing discussion over Saturday-Sunday holidays in Jammu and Kashmir schools may appear to be a simple question of the calendar. It is not. It is, in fact, a question about how we understand education—and what kind of childhood we want for our children.

The proposal for a five-day school week has triggered an important conversation. Supporters see an additional day of rest as an opportunity for children to spend more time with their families, play, read, pursue interests and simply breathe. There is merit in that argument.

But there is another side. Jammu and Kashmir already has a distinctive academic calendar, including long winter breaks. Fewer working days could mean less instructional time, greater pressure to complete the syllabus, longer school hours or more homework. So the question cannot simply be: “Should Saturday be a holiday?” The better question is: “What happens to a child during the other five days?” Because a six-day school week does not necessarily mean better education. And a five-day week does not automatically mean a better childhood.

A child can spend six days in school and still learn very little. Another child can spend five meaningful days learning, questioning, experimenting and creating—and perhaps learn much more. The number of school days matters. But what happens inside those days matters more. We also need to talk about the teacher.

A teacher’s work does not end when the last bell rings. Lesson planning, assessment, checking notebooks, maintaining records, communicating with parents and professional development all require time. Could an additional non-instructional day, if introduced, provide teachers with meaningful time for planning and professional development?Perhaps. But only if it does not quietly become another working day disguised as a holiday. Then there are parents. Some will welcome a two-day weekend. Others will ask a perfectly reasonable question: If one school day is removed, who will complete the syllabus?

And there is another uncomfortable reality—tuition. If Saturday becomes a holiday but the child spends it in coaching centres and private tuition, have we really reduced academic pressure? Or have we simply moved the classroom from the school building to the tuition centre? This is where the debate becomes much larger. Perhaps our problem is not that children spend too many days in school. Perhaps we are trying to teach too much, test too much and expect too much. We have gradually turned education into a race of chapters, tests, marks and ranks.

We ask: How many marks?… Which position?… How much syllabus completed?… But perhaps we should sometimes ask:Is the child happy?… Does the child still enjoy learning?… Does the child have time to play?… Does the child have time to read something beyond the textbook?… Does the child have a life outside the timetable?

The National Education Policy 2020 speaks of holistic development, creativity, physical and psychological well-being, sports, arts and learning beyond the narrow boundaries of rote education. If we genuinely believe in that philosophy, then the child’s time outside school cannot be treated as wasted time. But neither should we romanticise holidays…. Children need discipline…. They need routine….They need teachers who challenge them…. They need academic seriousness.The answer is not less education. It is better education.

Perhaps, therefore, the government should not approach this merely as a question of Saturday versus working Saturday. It should examine the whole ecosystem:The number of instructional days. The length of the school day. The size of the syllabus.
Homework… Examinations… Tuition culture… Teacher workload…. Student well-being…. And, most importantly, learning outcomes.

If five days can provide meaningful learning without overburdening children, there is a case worth examining. If five days simply compress the same burden into a shorter week, then we have solved nothing. Maybe the answer lies somewhere between the calendar and the classroom. Because our children do not need merely more holidays. They do not necessarily need more school either. They need better schools. Schools where teachers have time to teach. Where children have time to understand. Where examinations measure learning rather than anxiety. Where sports are not considered a distraction. Where curiosity is valued as much as correctness. And where, after the school day ends, a child still has enough time left to be a child.

Because childhood is not preparation for life. Childhood is life. And perhaps the real question before Jammu and Kashmir is not whether we should give children Saturday off. It is whether we are prepared to give them an education worth coming to school for.

Ikkz Ikbal holds a Masters in Biotechnology and is Principal & Academic Head at Maryam Memorial Institute, Pandithpora Qaziabad. He X’s @IkkzIkbal.