Going to school for six to seven hours is enough but staying for another hour at a desk serve anyone justice. The amount of time given to complete homework as well as revise for tests and give yourself some free time to de-stress, revision after school isn't enough before you have to get up at 6 am and start again. However some schools add more pressure on students by introducing ‘Twilight’ lessons after school as well as compulsory lessons after school which you have to attend to complete homework in, which is pointless as the point of homework is doing it out of class. So why are they a thing?
Some schools believe there isn't enough time in the timetable to teach everything that is needed to prepare the students for the exams. So they believe that by adding an extra hour or so each week will make a difference. Well through my experience I state that it isn't the case as usually teachers go over what we’ve done in the ‘Twilight’ lesson the next lesson back. So basically this idea of after school lessons doesn't influence our learning positively, as we are eager to get home and that’s all we focus on. By staying longer in class essentially not learning much and taking this time for daydreaming students waste precious time of revising for upcoming exams.
And as exams are looming just round the corner the workload for students has increased, resulting in overwhelming with the work set and more time spent at the desk which isn't great for our health. As more and more work is given to students they spend most of the time inactively by a desk causing obesity to grow within young people.
A couple of students from my school stated, “There is no reason we should be staying longer at school, isn't 6 to 5 hours of learning enough for the day? Through compulsory after school lessons we loose a sufficient amount of energy that is needed to finish off the school week, and by the end of it all we want is a rest.”
Overworking not only impacts our physical well-being and health but also has negative impacts on us mentally through the overwhelming load of information and things to do we have to process. This causes stress, making it harder to concentrate in class as our brain is overloaded with information. Will this case ever be brought up into consideration to support the students in their further education?
Wiktoria Wiktor, Gumley House Convent School
