When Jordan Lane, the Liberal member for the Sydney seat of Ryde, used his debut speech to parliament to label the 9am to 3pm schedule most Australian schools follow as a “relic of a sexist era”, it wasn’t the first time the concept of extending school hours to match modern families was raised.
But it was one of the most high-profile.
His call for hours at Australian schools to be extended to 6pm to reduce the logistical stress for working parents was picked up by a plethora of media outlets – a fact that may have caused some frustration to South Australian Labor politician Peter Malinauskas (now the state’s Premier) who made almost identical observations in 2022.
But while the argument that mothers (and any parent) should not be forced to choose between their own career progression and raising children is something that today’s generation understands well, no matter how many politicians keep talking about it, what we’re left with is a problem nobody really knows how to solve.
For already under-resourced schools dealing with teacher shortages, the idea of adding more hours to school days is an obstacle too challenging to negotiate. So, what actually needs to change? And how? And when?
With OECD figures showing Australian families spend between 10 and 16 per cent of their household income on childcare, how much more could be allocated to after-school care needs remains to be seen. And if the extended hours were funded by government, wondering where the money would come from is a valid question.
Yes, Mr Lane, “the great travesty of public policy would be if the education system of the 2050s looks as it did when it was established in the 1950s”. But to figure out a sustainable evolution, to fulfil his hoped-for vision of after-school activities that could include coding classes, culture and language, art, dance, music, and sport, communities across Australia need to continue the conversation.
