asked the Minister for Education if he will consider taking steps to ensure that boys and girls schools in the same area observe the same school hours in order to facilitate parents who, at present, are compelled to cook meals at several different hours.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - National School Hours.
Under the Rules and Regulations for National Schools, the local manager is charged with the direct government of each particular school. Certain minimum requirements in the matter of the duration of the school day, the time of opening for the reception of the pupils and the time for roll-call are laid down by departmental regulations. These regulations provide:—
(a) that the school shall be opened for the reception of pupils not later than 9.30 a.m.
(b) that the school day may comprise either one or two meetings with a minimum of four hours of secular instruction in either case, and
(c) that where the two-meeting school day is adopted the mid-day interval between the two meetings shall be of more than one hour's duration—normally it is an hour and a half.
Matters such as deciding whether the school will be conducted on the basis of a one-meeting or a two-meeting school day are questions for the manager of the school concerned in each case and are not ones in relation to which I have any function.
Surely the important matters referred to by Deputy N. Lemass are the concern of the parents as well as the school managers? Is it not up to the school manager to consult the parents in relation to the children?
I would approve of that course and, on the other hand, I would approve of parents consulting with the school manager.