Schools till 3.30? Oh! No!

I loved to be at school as much as I could and when I had to go home, walking to the school van was always done half-heartedly. But I doubt whether even I could have enjoyed if the school hours were extended to 3.30 during our time.
Be it another shallow election talk or the newest work-plan to hit the local schools, it is going to trigger a lot talk and a great deal of concern among the students, parents and most importantly the teachers. However, not knowing the date of implementation and the procedure, it is too early to make predictions, the educationalists should know better than to nod their heads at every fancy-talk delivered at election podiums, specially the statements that directly concern children.
If the school hours are going to be extended till 3.30, will there be a change in the subject range taught currently at schools? Will the children will be given enough time to relax and will the periods be longer? Most importantly, since there will be a lot of time, will the students taught how to live beyond the world of books and classes?
The initial repercussion of the situation will be that children may not have time to go for tuition classes, which might lead the tuition teachers to hold their classes till midnight. So, if this idea came up to scale down tuition classes, it will only victimize the students who are already victimized by the system.
Copying things from the West have been the age-old tradition; however emulating good things is always considered a sign of growth. But if the argument for lengthening school hours is merely because the kids in the west have it that way, we are standing on shaky grounds. Those students have access to a lot of resources and their curricula do not only target subject-oriented knowledge, but also aesthetic studies, physical training activities and community development projects. If this system is to be brought down home, it is highly doubtful that, even the best and most resourceful secondary schools in the capital city will have enough resources to cope up with the new situation.
Once upon a time, when English medium education was introduced to Sri Lanka, the authorities did not have a clear idea as to how they were going to train the teachers and how the textbooks would be set. Let’s hope and pray that if this nightmare to become a reality, at least this time they will have a strong back-up plan for it.