Idle Hours in Schools: A Major Concern for Parents
The idle hours in schools are the primary source of concern for parents, as their children, particularly middle school and high school students, are forced to spend them outside instead of being in a supervised room. Indeed, the prospect of their children spending their free time outside the school premises rather than in an empty classroom or even in the courtyard makes these unsupervised breaks a major concern for parents at the start of each new school year.
The fact that they have to stay outside because a teacher is absent or because they don't have classes between two subjects exposes them to all possible and imaginable risks related to the street: bullying, robbery, road accidents, altercations with thugs lurking around the school, buying and consuming drugs, etc. "My daughter is in high school," said Asma, a civil servant in a public institution. "I can't pick her up every time there's an idle hour because I'm working. One time, she had to stay outside for four hours because she not only had idle hours between classes but also because one of her teachers was absent that day."
The problem of idle hours is also a concern for other parents, such as Malika, who initially worried about her daughter every time she found herself outside her high school in Khaznadar due to an idle hour or an absent teacher before eventually resigning herself to the situation. "Finally, my daughter registered in a library so she could review her classes during idle hours or when a teacher is absent," said Malika. "However, idle hours are a real source of concern for parents. We imagine all sorts of scenarios, robberies, unsavory individuals lurking and waiting for students who stay outside to intimidate or harass them. I remember when I was young, we stayed in large supervised rooms. A solution really needs to be found to the problem of idle hours."
Since the start of the school year, in some middle schools and high schools, many students have been confronted with schedules that seem to favor the teaching staff, resulting in "idle hours" that are either scattered throughout the day or, on the contrary, grouped together, forcing them to stay outside the school due to the inability to commute back and forth to their homes. Faced with the lack of classrooms or supervised rooms, the solution would be to allow students to participate in clubs at any time of day, according to Karim, a 40-year-old civil servant in a public institution.
This measure would allow students to engage in a fun activity while avoiding staying outside the school. "It is imperative to set up large libraries within schools. Students could spend their free time reading, reviewing their classes... I remember very well that, when we were children, we spent all our idle hours in the library, which was then managed by a librarian," adds the 30-year-old. On the side of the Ministry of Education, idle hours do not seem to be a priority objective, with the institution preferring to focus more on the state of infrastructure (classrooms, fences...) and the material conditions in which students study (number of available and operational classrooms...). What about the management of empty time slots? Will this point be taken into account in future programs? At this stage, the ministry has not provided any response. This is a story to be continued.
