Every student loves the sound of it.
Every teacher questions it.
Every administrator fears it.
Businesses across the globe are converting to a four-day workweek after seeing the productivity and mental health benefits of COVID-imposed schedule changes, and perhaps ELPS has something to learn from it.
High school is meant to mirror and prepare students for the real world, so it’s time for the education system to consider moving towards the new norm of a four-day workweek.
According to an international study completed by 4 Day Week Global, multiple countries, including the U.S., found that 54 percent of employees in 33 companies reported an increase in work ability and productivity.
The study also mentions how the workers were still receiving full pay, and the businesses in fact had a 36 percent increase in revenue than the previous year with the five- day workweek.
Cutting 1⁄5 of the workweek out of the picture can sound drastic to profits and productivity, but the increase in mental health from a shorter workweek and increased productivity when at work appears to outweigh the time spent clocked in. With the decrease in the number of working hours per week, employees had a 68 percent reduction in burnout.
Burnout has become a popular buzzword since the shift toward monitoring mental health and can be described as ruining one’s mental health through overworking, which can affect production rates. It is often created when stressed or having to attend to excessive work.
While COVID brought tragedy, it also brought an opportunity to reevaluate an educational system stuck in the mud for the last century.
“The number (of four-day school weeks) rose from 650 districts in 2020 to 876 districts, across 26 states, in 2023,” according to CBS.
High school students are one of the most stressed and overworked populations throughout the U.S., according to a Harvard article on stress in students.
Not only would ELHS students’ mental health benefit from the change, but so would their productivity. Allowing students an additional day away from the classroom would benefit most students’ productivity when in class because they would feel more rested and prepared to work, similar to long weekends which are scattered throughout the year.
The four-day school week usually has either Friday or Monday off and has an extension of 35 minutes in school per day. This allows for the state-required 900 hours in 180 days of school to be completed by the same time as a five-day school week, given that some long weekends would be removed or a slightly shortened break. ELHS would dismiss at 2:45 instead of the regular 2:10.
Not only would the mental health of ELHS students and teachers increase, but productivity would rise substantially.
