Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday will now be the proposed school days starting from the academic year 2007 for schoolgirls and schoolboys in the city of Nice.
63% of those surveyed by the Nice City Hall regarding the school schedule responded favorably to the introduction of the four-day week. Agnès Rampal, the deputy mayor in charge of school life, explains how and why.
Nice Première: Ms. Rampal, what was the outcome of your consultation on the 4-day week?
Agnès Rampal: It went well. First, because of its participation rate: 15,061 responses out of 30,506 people surveyed, that’s 49.37% which, for a public survey where participation rates are generally less than 1%, is significant!
Furthermore, since the results are strongly in favor of changing the school rhythm with 63% of respondents favoring the 4-day week (9,501 responses) versus 15.99% for maintaining the status quo (2,409 responses) and 20.92% for replacing Saturday with Wednesday morning.
These are overall results; in every category surveyed, the 4-day week was substantially more preferred, and the results within each area of the city also strongly favored the 4 days.
NP: What is needed now to finalize this new schedule?
AR: To finalize this new rhythm, we now need the opinion of the school councils; then we’ll forward all the results to the Academic Inspection requesting the change in rhythm: all this must be finalized before the summer holidays because there is a 1-year lead time necessary for implementation (this period corresponds to the period for movements of elementary school teachers).
NP: What will be offered to parents and children to compensate for the school days that will become holidays?
AR: The 25 Saturdays that will be freed up are unlikely to create high demand from parents: currently, children go to school on Saturday mornings only 3 out of the 4 weekends per month, and we’ve never been asked for daycare for this 4th Saturday.
NP: Summer is fast approaching, can you give us a preview of the activities offered to schoolchildren who will become vacationers in Nice?
AR: There are indeed new developments for this summer’s vacation, and I propose to answer this week from the city hall as I do not have my file on hand!
[Image Gallery: The linked images displayed are relevant to the text, providing a visual connection to the educational setting discussed by Agnès Rampal.]