According to the will of the Young Liberals (July), school in Bavaria should start an hour later in the future. “Sleep experts have been criticizing for a long time that starting school at 8 a.m. does not fit into the daily rhythm of young people. Especially in winter, sensory performance, coordination and language skills are still adjusted to sleep,” said July head of state Felix Meyer on Thursday in Munich . A more effective learning climate can be expected if school starts at 9 a.m.
“Pupils should be the focus and be able to take as much knowledge as possible with them in class. We should adapt our school system to the requirements of those who go to school to learn something,” emphasized Meyer. Pupils in the ninth and tenth grades in particular often went to class overtired. “This not only damages learning success, but also health in the long run.”
The start of classes at 8 a.m. is a huge burden, especially for people who have a long way to go to school, it said. Long travel times into the city by bus and train and an internal clock that only really warms up the body later in the day could not lead to good results in the long run.
The state parliament FDP is also open to starting school later. In an application that was also on the agenda of the education committee on Thursday, the parliamentary group demands at least an examination of “the extent to which the start of school in Bavaria, which is usually practiced, should be postponed from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.”. There should be a pilot project at several schools in some cities and districts. As evidence, the FDP refers to other EU countries such as France, Italy or Spain, where starting school later is already common.