The number of terms in a school year should be doubled to six, a report commissioned by English local authorities recommended yesterday.
In a radical overhaul of the academic timetable, candidates should also sit A-levels and GCSEs in April and May, as that would help up to 1.8 million hay fever sufferers, the report for the Local Government Association recommended.
Other changes proposed include a fixed two-week Easter break, moving the six-week summer holiday forward to the beginning of July and making term six a "time for cultural activities" and a starting point for the next year's work.
The proposals, the latest in a string of ideas for shaking up the school year, will need wide support among councils, teaching unions and universities if they are to be implemented.
Mr Graham Lane, education chairman of the LGA, said councils should now respond to its conclusions "as a matter of urgency".
He said the report was "an opportunity to look at the best way of organising the school year for the benefit of students, staff and parents".
It would also mean university candidates could apply after their exams knowing their grades, rather than having to wait and see if they fulfilled conditional offers.
Schools in different parts of England would start their summer breaks at different times, a move designed to benefit the tourism industry.
Teachers were unimpressed, however.
A teachers' union general secretary, Mr Nigel de Gruchy said: "The retention of the vitally important long summer vacation makes this report much more acceptable than its predecessors.
"However, NASUWT remains profoundly sceptical about the benefits being proposed."
Half-term holidays falling in February, May and October meant the school year was already divided into six chunks, he said.
A Department of Education spokesperson said there are no plans to disrupt the existing three-term school year.
The school year in the Republic, at 167 days, is one of the shortest in the OECD. In Britain, the school year averages about 190 days.