1974’s three-day week is now no more than a bad memory.
Nevertheless, there’s an unsettling echo of the conditions that surrounded its introduction - chronically high inflation, anger over public sector pay caps, restricted electricity generation, trade union militancy – in Britain’s current woes.
The idea that a new crisis could make it unsustainable or unaffordable to keep classrooms open from Monday to Friday would have been unthinkable only months ago. But such is the speed with which pressures are building that the prospect may already be close to reality.
READ MORE: Scottish schools 'may have to switch to three-day week'
Schools south of the Border are reportedly considering the implementation of three- and four-day weeks as they battle to balance the books amid soaring energy prices. “This is serious stuff,” said one senior leader.
The Department for Education in London has moved swiftly to kibosh the moves. But with inflation continuing to surge, damaging cuts to education provision seem unavoidable.
Debate about restructuring school time is not new. Suggestions that the working week could be cut from five days to four have been extensively covered in the media and are proving popular among teachers, many of whom feel exhausted and burnt out following disruption wrought by Covid-19.
What's striking about recent developments is the extent to which a discussion that was largely focused on wellbeing and mental health is rapidly expanding to include economic, budgetary and even environmental themes as society reels under the impact of multiple, interlinked crises.
READ MORE: Teachers overwhelmingly back proposal for four-day week
Professor Neil Selwyn points out, for example, that schools in some parts of Texas are already beginning to move to a four-day week due to wage and salary costs. The shift may be of interest to Scottish learning establishments as a protracted pay dispute between ministers, council bosses and teacher unions rumbles on.
Proposals for a 1970s-style three-day week within education will strike many as fanciful (and it’s a fair bet most parents will not be keen). Thanks to the governance role of councils, schools north of the Border enjoy financial protections that are not available to many of their counterparts in England.
But there can be no doubt that services here also face a profound threat to their stability and viability over the coming months. In this period of unprecedented and relentless turmoil, it feels as if anything could happen.
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