No more endless summer?

"Nine weeks of summer vacation is too long for primary school children," Susanne Brandsteidl, president of the Vienna School Board, told the Austrian weekly NEWS.  Middle school summer and catholic holidays should also be cut. Since high school students do internships and language courses, their nine weeks are safe.

Bulgarian primary school children get 16 weeks, while Latvia and Turkey allow their school kids to roam free for 13, children in Portugal, Italy, and Greece get 12, and Hungary, Sweden, and Finland allot 10 weeks of freedom. The kids in Germany and the UK get only six weeks.

Nine weeks: lavish to Brandsteidl, but a middle-ground in Europe.