Javea Schools Protest

Thursday, 17 April 2008

This week two Spanish primary schools in Javea joined many others in the region to campaign for a change to the current school hours. 70 teachers from the Vicente Tena & Graull schools in the old town area of Javea, felt the need to support the protest for reduced school hours, in an attempt to make the school day a little easier to bear for children from as young a 3 years old.

Currently Vicente Tena & Graull open from 9am until noon and then from 2pm until 4.30pm. Children are able to stay for lunch between noon and 2pm, but only if they are happy to eat the food prepared by the catering companies attached to the schools.

Unfortunately, most Spanish schools do not permit you to take a homemade lunch as an alternative to their school dinners. There are numerous children who do not like the food or atmosphere of the dining halls, and this leaves many parents with no option but to collect their child at noon and return them at 2pm.

This causes a great deal of inconvenience to working parents, as most are still at work when the children need to be collected at lunchtime and at the end of the day. Teachers believe that a reduction in the school hours will definitely make life a little easier on both the children and the working parents. I however, am not entirely sure that a reduction in school hours will be at all helpful to working parents. I am one of these working parents, and one of the lucky ones, as my son likes the Spanish school dinners.

I admit that he does return home quite tired, but if school finishing hours were reduced to match for example the UK’s 3pm finish times, I would then have to send my son to the non existent after school clubs or to a child minder instead. Thus increasing my outgoings and not doing a thing to reduce his hours away from home anyway.

In my opinion perhaps the best option for schools is to adopt a more lenient attitude towards homemade lunches. This should help reduce the need for some of the mid-day pick up’s, and make some working parents lives a little easier.

Also if earlier school finish times are to be implemented, perhaps providing an after school club on site would be more convenient for those parents who are not able to be as flexible as others.

If you have any opinions or comments on this subject they would be most appreciated.