Geneva’s education authority is considering changing the canton’s school holiday calendar.
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The holidays under discussion are Easter, the long weekend of Ascension and the summer break.
Proposed changes would extend the Easter break from one to two weeks, make the Friday following Ascension – Thursday 30 May 2019 this year – a school holiday and shorten the summer break by one week.
Arguments in favour of the shift include reducing the gap between between Easter and the beginning of the summer holidays, a period of school that sometimes stretches to 12 weeks, and a reduction in the amount of learning lost due to the long summer break, currently 8 weeks in Geneva.
A study in the UK showed some loss of ability to spell, and another in the US showed a loss equivalent to 2.6 months of learning in maths over the long summer holiday period.
In addition, some have raised the issue of connecting holidays to a religious calendar, in particular Easter. Easter follows a lunar calendar and moves every year with dates that range by more than a month from 22 March to 25 April. This affects the number of school weeks before and after the holiday.
The proposal’s consultation period lasts until 5 July 2019.
More on this:
Geneva government press release (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
Geneva school holiday dates (in French)
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