Should we make children stay at school until 6pm?

Lesson time: Could kids have a nine-hour school dayGetty

A new nine-hour school day is at the heart of a controversial proposal that would also cut holidays from 13 weeks a year to just seven.

The plan was devised by David Cameron’s former policy advisor Paul Kirby, who claims it would help prepare kids for the world of work, reduce street crime and make it easier for parents to juggle full-time work and childcare.

But critics say it would put too much pressure on youngsters and teachers, as well as costing hundreds of millions in extra pay for staff.

Here two leading education experts give both sides of the argument.

YES

Chris McGovern - Retired head and Chairman of The Campaign For Real Education

Education is a good thing. When I was a head, kids were breaking the door down to get into school. We hear a lot about disaffected young but not enough about how children actually want to be in school, they want to improve themselves and they enjoy being with their friends.

Longer school hours will mean children will have a richer, fuller curriculum so they are going to be able to do more in school. They will do better in maths and literacy but also have time to do foreign languages, which are squeezed out at the moment.

A recent report shows there are jobs out there but they can’t find the youngsters with the basic literacy and numeracy skills to fill them. In other parts of the world, particularly in Asian countries children are doing longer hours. Essentially we’re falling behind the rest of the world’s developed countries.

It’s going to benefit those kids who really need it

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