- Recent studies show that the extended school day can help reduce learning deficits and dropout, especially when accompanied by improvements in pedagogical design.
- By easing the time constraints associated with childcare, it also tends to support women’s employment.
- Its effects can also be seen beyond the classroom: in the Dominican Republic, for example, it is associated with a lower probability of teenage motherhood and a decline in certain violent crimes, including homicides outside school hours.
For some time now, the education debate in Latin America and the Caribbean has no longer been framed exclusively in terms of access to school. Today, many more children and young people reach the classroom than in the past, yet a decisive gap persists: the gap between years of schooling and years of effective learning. Students attend school for an average of about 12 years, but effective learning is equivalent to only 7.8 years of quality education.
Against this backdrop, the extended school day emerges as a useful tool for making better use of the time children spend in school: not as an end in itself, but as a way to improve learning, strengthen skills, and generate broader social benefits. Even so, implementation remains limited in Mexico, the Central American Isthmus, and the Dominican Republic: only five of the nine countries in the region have some experience in this area, in some cases through pilot programs.
What the Data Tell Us
What does the available evidence tell us about its effects? In recent years, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has carried out a research agenda on the extended school day that helps answer this question from different perspectives, beyond strictly academic outcomes. Among other benefits, these studies show that it can support women’s employment, boost productivity, and reduce the incidence of teenage pregnancy and certain violent crimes.
In academic terms, the extended school day has produced modest effects if average scores on standardized academic tests are used as the benchmark, although an IDB technical note reviews positive experiences, for example in Pernambuco (Brazil). Another IDB analysis on the Dominican Republic also finds a reduction in dropout and in the gender gap in learning, particularly better results among girls in formative assessments.
School Day, Equity, and Women’s Employment
Extending school hours acts as an implicit subsidy for childcare, since it reduces the time constraints faced by households, especially women, and facilitates their entry into the labor market.
A study on the effects of doubling school hours on women’s labor force participation in the Dominican Republic evaluates the impact of the extended school day by comparing mothers eligible for the program, whose children attend public schools, with non-eligible mothers, whose children attend private schools. This study associates the introduction of the extended school day with a significant increase in women’s employment, especially among mothers, women with lower levels of education, and residents of urban areas. Overall, these results suggest that the effects are more marked in households with school-age children and limited access to formal childcare services.
Adolescence and Risk Behaviors
The extended school day can also help reduce certain risks during adolescence. The IDB technical note Extended School Day and Teenage Fertility in Dominican Republic, for example, concluded that when the measure reaches close to half of secondary school students in a municipality, the probability of teenage motherhood falls by between 3% and 4% over the following two years.
This may be explained by several factors: more time under adult supervision, higher expectations of continuing in school, and a stronger incentive not to drop out.
The Impact on Security and Crime
While no evidence has been found of a generalized reduction in crime, a recent study on the impact of the extended school day on crime in the Dominican Republic associates the introduction of this measure with a decline in homicides committed outside school hours, as well as in the number of male homicide victims.
One possible explanation is that spending more time in school improves young people’s future prospects and reduces the incentives to engage in illicit activities. It can also strengthen socioemotional skills and prosocial behaviors, which tends to reduce the incidence of the most serious violent behaviors. Thus, beyond its educational role, school also plays a preventive role.
Indirect Effects on Productivity: The Case of Mexico
A study conducted by the IDB in Mexico links the expansion of the pilot full-time schools program to an increase in women’s employment and to productivity gains, measured through three indicators: value added in relation to gross output, fixed assets, and the number of workers. This points to a more efficient use of capital and labor, especially in municipalities with higher employment, higher levels of education among women, and lower poverty.
The same analysis suggests that the impact was clearer in labor markets capable of absorbing a larger supply of female labor. In addition, the gains were more pronounced when this increase in employment occurred among women who gained access to business ownership or managerial positions.
As shown in Table 1, these effects are part of a broader chain of impacts linking school time to learning, employment, productivity, security, and risk behaviors.
In short, the findings from this IDB research agenda indicate that the extended school day is not an end in itself, but a strategic investment in human capital with benefits that go beyond the classroom. If accompanied by sound pedagogical design, it can help strengthen learning, support women’s employment, improve productivity, and reduce risk behaviors in adolescence—and therefore early motherhood—as well as the incidence of certain crimes.