Eighty-eight percent of respondents to a survey think that school days should start later, the Taiwan Youth Association for Democracy said yesterday.
The poll, conducted by the association in cooperation with 11 other non-governmental organizations, showed that 33.8 percent of respondents supported pushing back starting times to 9:30am, while 32 percent said that classes should start between 8:30am and 9:30am.
It also showed that 26.6 percent supported making attendance at independent study periods that take place before classes start optional.
The survey also collected suggestions on improving school schedules, the association said.
Some respondents suggested that education authorities help make school hours consistent across all the nation’s public and private schools, it said.
The survey was conducted after a proposal made on the Public Policy Online Participation Platform in December last year called on the government to change school hours at junior-high and high schools to 9:30am to 5pm, it said.
The petition quickly attracted considerable attention and was backed by 10,296 signatures on the platform’s Web site, it said.
To address the issue, the Ministry of Education is to hold the first of two online public hearings today, the association said.
The second session would take place on Tuesday next week, the Web site showed.
As syllabi and other circumstances make it difficult to push back school starting times to 9:30am, it would be a good first step if the ministry allowed students to decide whether they want to participate in morning independent study periods, the association said.
That would allow students who need more sleep to arrive at school for their first class at 8:10am, instead of at about 7:20am, it said.
The survey was conducted from Friday last week to Tuesday and collected responses from 4,024 people, the association said.
Of them, 63.7 percent were high-school students, 26.1 percent were students at elementary or junior-high schools, 5.6 percent were university students and 3.3 percent were parents, it said.
Teachers (0.5 percent), students receiving experimental education (0.2 percent) and other members of the public (0.6 percent) also participated in the poll, it added.
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