A citizen-initiated petition to delay junior-high and high-school class starting times to 10am has gained more than 10,000 signatures in less than a week, prompting the Ministry of Education yesterday to announce that it would review the proposal and reply within two months.
Most junior-high and high-school students begin classes at about 8am. The petition — submitted on Tuesday last week on the National Development Council’s public policy participation Web site — calls for classes to run from 10am to 4pm and for nonessential courses to be cut to give students more sleep and improve learning efficiency.
It says that students can already commute on their own and do not need to match parents’ work schedules, while shorter hours would allow more time for hobbies and social activities.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
The petition said that chronic sleep deprivation can lower learning efficiency, and increase the risk of depression, self-harm and suicide.
However, opponents argue that shorter hours might simply lead to students spending more time in private cram schools and fail to address the issue of lack a sleep.
The ministry yesterday said that the petition would be handled according to the Directions for Implementing Online Participation in Public Policy, and its formal response would be issued by Nov. 14.
Research has shown that the biological clock of junior-high and high-school students lends itself to getting up after 8am, Tri-Service General Hospital psychiatrist Yeh Chih-pin (葉啟斌) said.
Each age group has different standard bedtimes, with lower-grade students needing to go to bed at about 9pm, Yeh said, adding that this bedtime is moved back by about an hour each year.
However, sleep needs to vary from person to person, he said.
Some people feel energized with just four to five hours of sleep, while others need about seven to eight hours, Yeh said.
In addition, 10 to 20 percent of people are naturally late sleepers and late risers, making them most energetic and efficient later in the day, he said.
This makes it difficult to set a schedule that is suitable for everyone, he added.
Maintaining flexibility and choice is good, just as other fields embrace people with diverse traits, he said, adding that corresponding support measures are necessary.
Yeh said that in some environments, students’ interest in learning declines because teaching is mostly lecture-based with little hands-on practice.
As a result, they are drowsy during the day and fall asleep later at night, which alters their biological clock over time, Yeh said.
This is different from innate traits that make people night owls, which requires understanding and intervention to improve, he said.
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