Summer holidays could be cut short to help children catch up after the disruption to their schooling during the pandemic.
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson did not rule out the idea of restructuring the school year when pressed on the idea of slashing the summer break in the Commons.
He indicated that the idea was being looked at by the Government's new catch-up tsar Sir Kevan Collins, as part of a new review into how to mitigate the damage done to children's education by the pandemic.
Tory MP Imran Ahmad Khan cited proposals by the Institute of Economic Affairs' think tank, which criticised long summer holidays .
Speaking in the Commons, he said: "I wonder if the minister would kindly look into the proposal of restructuring the school year to reduce the length of summer holidays, a policy that would greatly benefit pupils and parents?"
Mr Williamson responded: "We've asked Sir Kevan Collins to look across a whole and broad range of different ways of giving children a boost in terms of being able to not just catch up in terms of any learning that they've lost, but actually more fundamentally make major changes to actually how we drive educational attainment over a generation and more.
"And of course all of this is something that Sir Kevan will be looking at."
Sir Kevan has previously said that pupils will need extra hours of school, including sport, music and drama.
He told the BBC last month that the effects of the pandemic would be felt for years to come and suggested that GCSEs in 2022 may have to be slimmed down.
Meanwhile, Tory Education Committee chairman Robert Halfon said a lack of clear guidance on whether children need to wear face coverings could lead to "mask anarchy".
"Given that the schools minister (Nick Gibb) said that the wearing of masks by pupils on the school estate is advisory guidance, if a pupil or a parent on behalf of a pupil objects to comply with the wishes of a head teacher to wear a mask, are we not in danger of creating mask anarchy," he told the Commons.
"Is it not better to come down firmly on one side or another and provide clearly definitive regulations to help teaching staff?"
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the Government had "strongly recommended" that secondary school pupils wear masks in classrooms when they cannot social distance and in communal areas.
