The Chairman of the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) has said he believes there should be changes to the amount of time kids spend in school.

Don Thornhill thinks children should spend less time in the classroom each day, the Independent reports.

"We need shorter school days and longer terms," he stated.

Mr Thornhill was commenting ahead of the publication of the NCC's annual report on competitiveness, which is due out today (September 6th).

The organisation believes the country's education system can be improved as the document highlights how 15-year-old students have been performing poorly on international tests to gauge scientific and mathematic skills.

Irish youngsters currently have one of the world's longest summer holidays, which were originally introduced to enable them to help with harvests, the newspaper noted.

However, these breaks are now considered to be outdated.

This comes after the Irish Times recently reported many secondary school teachers have objected to education reforms that have been proposed by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn, such as a greater focus on teacher-based grading.

Written by Donal Walsh

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