Opinion | How to avoid those hazy days of summer

“Go to any French supermarket and you will be greeted by a stand ‘Passport to ...’ On sale are a range of manuals of varying quality, depth and rigour. What they all have in common is that they offer students of all ages a link between the grade they are leaving behind and the one they are about to enter,” says educator Rachael Desgouttes.

This is a cultural tradition in France, she explains. “Students are not expected to self-learn material not covered in class. The function of these books is more simple – to keep their brains ticking.”

Desgouttes’ concern about preventing a summer brain drain, as learning loss associated with the long break is often called, is also personal; she has two teenage children.

A meta-analysis of 39 studies, conducted since 1978, found that in the absence of school, almost all students score lower on standardised math tests at the end of the summer, compared to their performance on the same tests at the beginning of summer.

The general learning loss that occurs during the summer months was most acute in factual and procedural learning. Because procedural learning involves the acquisition of a skill through repeated performance and practice, it is easy to understand why students lose computational skills over the summer break.

Substantial differences were also found in reading and language scores between middle and lower-class students after the summer holidays. While middle-class students showed a nonsignificant gain in reading scores, lower-class students showed a significant loss, that represented a gap of about three months of reading skills between middle and lower-class students

There are several lines of thought regarding sending students to summer schools, which have become a thriving ancillary educational industry.