Shocking Report: Long Summer Holidays Harm Both Children and the Economy!

And although no one in Croatia questions the duration of summer holidays, especially not the children, in other European Union countries this topic sparks a real debate and believe it or not, the length of holidays is becoming the subject of serious economic and educational analyses. Italy is leading in this regard.

Italy the Record Holder

Italian schools are closed for almost 100 days, which is seven days longer than in Portugal and significantly more than in Germany, where summer holidays last only 46 days. In France, there are no classes for just 56 days, and in Spain for 84 days. The situation is not the same in all countries; in some regional states, they decide on the duration of summer holidays, so children in northern Germany do not have holidays at the same time as children in the south.

However, as it has been shown year after year that Italy is the record holder, the Italian bank UniCredit published a report last year warning that prolonged summer holidays can have serious macroeconomic consequences. Long summer holidays are an anachronism, the report claims, which ‘dates back to the agricultural past of the country, when fresh energy was needed for harvesting. It is also an anomaly in the European context and among advanced economies in general.’

Edoardo Campanella, director of the UniCredit Investment Institute, explains that one of the worst repercussions of such long holidays is the reduced participation of women in the labor market. When schools close their doors, free daily childcare disappears, which particularly affects working mothers.

– Such holidays harm the accumulation of human capital, reduce women’s employability, and worsen educational inequality – states Campanella.

Social Differences

The school year is also important for learning and acquiring knowledge. It is the foundation of the knowledge that children accumulate. According to American research, the summer break in learning can result in a loss of 25 to even 30 percent of the knowledge from the previous grade acquired during the school year, especially in mathematics.

In countries like Italy, which already achieve low results on PISA tests in natural subjects, this further complicates educational outcomes, noted UniCredit. For students from higher-income families, summer often means access to additional educational programs and private tutors, while children from lower-income families mostly stay at home or spend time in front of screens, which deepens educational inequalities. Prolonged holidays thus, even unintentionally, strengthen social differences, and due to long breaks in learning and careers, slow down the long-term development of human capital, which ultimately has consequences for GDP.

– It is difficult to quantify all the economic consequences, but it is clear that prolonged holidays undermine the potential of the country and make it difficult to evenly distribute opportunities for all – concluded Campanella.

In Italy, this is being discussed in the public sphere, but so far nothing is changing. Proposals have been made to shorten holidays and introduce shorter but more frequent school breaks throughout the year to reduce knowledge loss and increase women’s labor participation, but no significant changes have yet been implemented.

The French are also proposing a reform of the school calendar, but this is met with resistance from both the public and unions and local communities. The only European country where the issue of summer holidays is actively linked to knowledge loss is Germany, where both the public and professionals are most receptive to this problem. Of course, reforms are already being implemented in Finland, which is prone to experiments in the education system that lead to better learning outcomes.

For local students and parents, summer holidays are almost sacred, a time for relaxation and summer activities, and for professors and teachers, a time when they can finally engage in something other than their profession. However, that longer holidays pose an economic and educational challenge is something no one can deny.