[Hygienic rationale for the new pattern of a school year]

Many hygienic studies have indicated that the traditional structure of a school year, which exists at educational establishments and which is divided into four school terms that are unequal in duration does not correspond to the physiological capacities of most schoolchildren. The new structure of a school year under which (1-week) vocations are held every 5-6 weeks of study is outlined. The regular alternation of the periods of study and rest was ascertained to promote to the higher stability of the parameters of pupils' working capacity within the school year as compared with its traditional division into four terms. There is evidence that the new calendar of school vocations, as compared to the traditional one, has a health-promoting effect, which is determined by the lower incidence rates of acute diseases, by the less tension of cardiovascular tonogenic tension, by the preservation of higher adaptive capacities in the pupils at the end of a school year, by the lower incidence rates of increased and high neurotization in the pupils, by their more steady-state psychoemotional status and higher performance in studies.