Students should finish their homework at school during after-school hours, and ideally attend sports, arts and catechism lessons on the same school grounds in the afternoon, newly-appointed MP Ramona Attard told parliament in her maiden speech on Tuesday.

The lawyer and mother-of-three - who was sworn in as a Labour Party MP last week - said it was time the country seriously re-assessed homework and extra-curricular activities, as they were negatively impacting families' lives and children's quality of education.

"Do children need to come home from school and spend their time doing homework instead of enjoying their childhood," she asked.

"It doesn't make sense for school to end at 1pm or 2pm, only for children to go home and start doing homework again. It's also unfair to children who don't have as much help at home - some of whom don't even have a quiet room to do their homework."

Extending the school day by, say, one hour, would allow students to finish their homework at school without needing to lengthen overall school hours or working hours, she said.

The children could be supervised by older students, LSEs and teachers who do not mind working overtime.

'Rent school grounds for sports, art'

Attard also suggested maximising the use of school facilities that "recent governments have invested so much in".

Private enterprises that offer sports, arts and other extracurricular tuition could rent out the school premises after hours and offer their services on school grounds.

This would allow children to remain at school and provide fairer opportunities to students from lower-income families.

The generated income would be reinvested to improve school infrastructure, such as air conditioning.

"I spoke with parents over the weekend whose children attend private drama lessons at Siġġiewi primary school," she said.

"These initiatives should be encouraged, as they allow parents to pick up their children after all their activities, including lessons and catechism, freeing up the rest of the day for quality family time."

Other children have nobody to drive them around to extracurricular activities or pay for them, and this would give them a fairer opportunity to develop their talents, she added.

A similar idea was floated last week during TV programme Il-Każin, when PN's former finance minister Tonio Fenech suggested extending school hours — not for teaching, but to incorporate extracurricular activities into the education system.

He also said schools should look into making better use of their premises and facilities after hours.

The debate surrounding school hours has gained traction following a recent study by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE) which highlighted the “marked incompatibility” between Malta’s short school hours and the typical eight-hour workday. 

The NCPE noted that Malta’s school opening hours are among the shortest in the EU.