NEW Proposal to change the dates for the summer holidays to make life easy for teachers and students in hot weather.
Kevin Bates, president of the Queensland Teachers Union, said its proposal was about rethinking school terms until all classrooms could be air-conditioned.
“We want to recognise that our classrooms, with the way the climate is changing, are getting hotter in the summer months,” he told ABC Radio Brisbane’s Craig Zonca.
“It makes it really tough for kids to learn.
“In February this year we took the temperature inside some of the classrooms in Ipswich and it was up around 42 degrees.
“At that temperature it’s a situation where children really can’t learn.”
Public schools currently finish on December 14 and return on January 22. Under the new proposal, the Christmas break would be from December 22 to February 5.
If the plan was to go ahead, the Christmas holidays would start December 22 with children returning to school on February 5.
“If we can rethink the school terms to create a greater leeway between the warmest weather and when people are starting school, we should consider this as an option until we can air-condition every classroom,” Mr Bates said.
“Really, we want to get air conditioning in classrooms and that means students can learn regardless of the time of the year.”
He said the proposal to move holiday dates was still in the early planning phase.
As a Tasmanian I have noticed that Queensland and some other states, start their holidays a lot earlier than we do. Maybe all states should be the same dates? We usually don’t finish the year until Christmas week and we go back early February.
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