Based on official regulations or agreements, teachers in public schools in OECD countries and other participants are required to teach on average 1 007 hours per year at pre-primary level, 773 hours at primary level, 706 hours at lower secondary level (general programmes) and 679 hours at upper secondary level (general programmes).
The way teachers' total working time is divided between teaching and non-teaching activities, and the distribution of working hours taking place within the school or elsewhere, varies widely across countries.
Non-teaching tasks are part of teachers’ workloads and there is wide variation across countries as to which tasks are mandatory or voluntary for teachers. Tasks and activities that were considered voluntary in a larger proportion of countries were also those for which teachers were provided an allowance or additional payment in a larger proportion of countries. For example, few countries require teachers to mentor new teachers; and an allowance or additional payment is generally offered to teachers for volunteering to do so.
Education at a Glance 2024
Although statutory working and teaching hours only partly determine teachers’ actual workloads, they do offer valuable insights into the demands placed on teachers in different countries. Teaching hours and the extent of non-teaching duties may also affect the attractiveness of the teaching profession (see Chapter D5). Together with salaries (see Chapter D3) and average class sizes (see Chapter D2), this chapter presents some key measures of the working lives of teachers.
The proportion of teachers’ statutory working time spent teaching provides information about how much time they have available for non-teaching activities, such as lesson preparation, correction, in-service training and staff meetings. A greater share of statutory working time spent teaching may indicate that a lower proportion of working time is devoted to tasks such as assessing students and preparing lessons, as stated in regulations. It could also indicate that teachers perform these tasks in their own time and hence work more hours than required by their statutory working hours.
In addition to class sizes and the ratio of students to teaching staff (see Chapter D2), students’ hours of instruction (see Chapter D1 of Education at a Glance 2023 (OECD, 2023[1])) and teachers’ salaries (see Chapter D3), the amount of time teachers spend teaching also has implications for the financial resources that countries need to allocate to education (see Chapter C7 of Education at a Glance 2023 (OECD, 2023[1])).
Across OECD countries and other participants, the required teaching time in public schools varies more widely at the pre-primary level than at any other level, ranging from 505 hours in Mexico to 1 755 hours in Germany.
At the upper secondary level, teachers spend 43% of their working time on teaching on average, ranging from less than 32% in Japan, Norway and the Republic of Türkiye, to 61% or more in Luxembourg, Peru and Scotland (United Kingdom). Teachers in most countries are required to perform various non-teaching tasks during their working time, such as lesson planning/preparation, marking students’ work and communicating or co-operating with parents or guardians.
In 21 OECD countries and other participants, teachers’ statutory working time includes working during students’ school holidays in at least one level of education. In most of these countries, working time during school holidays is required to be spent on specific activities, such as preparation for the next school term, or individual and/or collective professional development activities.
At pre-primary, primary and secondary levels, countries vary considerably in their annual statutory teaching time – the number of teaching hours per year required of a full-time teacher in a public school. Differences in how teaching time is regulated and/or reported across countries may explain some of the differences in statutory teaching time between countries (for more information see Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes).
Statutory teaching time in public schools varies more at the pre-primary level than at any other level among OECD countries and other participants with data available. On average, pre-primary teachers are required to teach 1 007 hours per year, spread over 40 weeks or 194 days. The number of teaching days ranges from 162 days per year in France to 227 days in Sweden. Annual teaching hours range from 505 hours or less per year in Mexico to 1 755 hours in Germany. These large variations across countries and other participants result from the combination of differences in the length of the school year and in the number of teaching hours per day. For example, pre-primary teachers teach an average of 2.7 hours per day over 190 days in Mexico, but 7.8 hours per day over 225 days in Germany (Table D4.1 and Figure D4.1).
Primary school teachers are required to teach an average of 773 hours per year in public institutions. In most countries and other participants with available data, daily teaching time ranges from about 2.5 to 6 hours a day, with an OECD average of more than 4 hours per day. There is no set pattern to how teaching time is distributed throughout the year. For example, primary school teachers in Colombia teach 940 hours per year, 86 hours more than in Spain (854 hours). However, as teachers teach on more days per year in Colombia than in Spain (188 days compared to 176 days), teachers in both countries teach nearly 5 hours a day on average (Table D4.1).
Lower secondary school teachers in general programmes in public institutions are required to teach an average of 706 hours per year. Teaching time ranges from under 600 hours in Bulgaria, Finland, Korea, Poland, Romania and Türkiye, to over 1 000 hours in Chile and Costa Rica (Table D4.1). However, reported hours refer to the minimum time teachers are required to teach in Finland and Korea, while they refer to the maximum teaching time in Chile (see Table X3.D4.3 in Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes - https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en).
A teacher in general upper secondary education in public institutions has an average teaching workload of 679 hours per year. Teaching time ranges from fewer than 500 hours per year in Bulgaria and Poland to more than 1 000 hours in Chile and Costa Rica. Teachers in Bulgaria, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland and Türkiye teach for less than 3 hours per day, on average, compared to 6 hours or more in Costa Rica (Table D4.1).
In some countries teaching time requirements may change at the subnational level (Box D4.1), or throughout a teacher’s career, or according to their qualification level (Box D4.2). In several countries, some new teachers have a reduced teaching workload during their induction programmes. Some countries also encourage older teachers to stay in the profession by reducing their teaching hours. For example, in Chile and Portugal, teachers may have a reduced teaching workload based on their number of years in the profession and/or age.
There are regional differences in teachers’ statutory teaching and working time in the four countries reporting subnational data (Belgium, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States). The number of weeks of teaching (at pre-primary, primary and lower and upper secondary levels) is the same across subnational entities with available data in Belgium and the United Kingdom but varies across provinces in Canada (ranging from 36 to 40 weeks in 2023) and states in the United States (from 34 to 37 weeks in 2021). However, equal number of weeks of teaching at the subnational level can mask differences in teaching time in terms of days or hours of teaching at the subnational level (OECD, 2024[2]).
The four countries show different patterns of variation at the subnational level. In Canada and the United Kingdom, the number of days of teaching varies by less than 6% between subnational entities with available data (by 10 days in Canada and 3 days in the United Kingdom), but teaching hours vary widely between subnational entities. In Canada, teaching time varies by 25% at the primary level (from 700 hours in New Brunswick to 874 hours in Saskatchewan) and the difference rises to 48% for upper secondary general programmes (from 615 hours in Québec to 910 hours in New Brunswick). In the United Kingdom teaching time is 46% longer in Wales (1 252 hours) than in Northern Ireland (855 hours). In Belgium, neither the number of days of teaching nor the number of hours vary much (in relative terms) between the Flemish and French communities, except for teaching time at the pre-primary level (a difference of 9%, from 704 hours in the Flemish community to 766 hours in the French community). In contrast, in the United States, the number of days of teaching varies by 6-8% across the different states, depending on the level of education (from 167 days at the pre-primary level to 183 days in general programmes at the upper secondary level), but teaching hours vary much more. At the primary level, teaching time in Michigan (993 hours), the state with the longest teaching hours, is 29% higher than teaching time in Maine (770 hours), the state with the shortest teaching time. For lower and upper secondary general programmes, the difference reaches 37-38% (from less than 760 hours in New Hampshire at lower secondary level and in Oregon at upper secondary level, to 1 038 hours in Mississippi at lower secondary level and Alabama at upper secondary level) and exceeds 50% at the pre-primary level (from 665 hours in Oregon to 1 018 hours in Alabama) (OECD, 2024[2]).
However, caution is necessary when comparing information at the subnational level due to the following considerations: potential differences in the regulations between countries and between subnational regions within countries, differences in how data are reported for the different subnational regions, and varying data availability for subnational regions within countries. For example, typical or minimum teaching time is reported for the subnational regions of Belgium, but estimated teaching time (based on self-reported information from teachers) is reported for the different states in the United States (OECD, 2024[2]).
Teaching time tends to decrease as the level of education increases. In most countries and other participants, the number of statutory teaching hours (in public institutions) at the pre-primary level is greater than at the upper secondary level (general programmes). The exceptions are Brazil, Chile and Scotland (United Kingdom), where teachers are required to teach the same number of hours at all levels of education, and Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico and Peru, where upper secondary school teachers are required to teach more hours than pre-primary school teachers (Table D4.1).
The largest difference in teaching time requirements is between the pre-primary and primary levels of education. On average across countries and other participants with data for both levels, pre-primary teachers are required to spend about 42% more time in the classroom than primary teachers. In Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Germany, Iceland, Latvia and Slovenia, pre-primary school teachers are required to teach more than twice the number of hours per year as primary school teachers (Table D4.1).
Primary school teachers teach 9% more hours per year on average than lower secondary school teachers. The difference reaches or exceeds 30% in the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Türkiye, while there is no difference in Brazil, Chile, Czechia, Hungary, Iceland, Scotland (United Kingdom), Slovenia and Romania. In contrast, the teaching workload for primary school teachers is 3-7% lighter than for lower secondary school teachers in Bulgaria, Costa Rica, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; 14% lighter in Peru and 23% lighter in Mexico (Table D4.1).
In most countries and other participants, the teaching hours in lower and upper secondary levels are similar (equal or less than 5% different). However, lower secondary teachers teach at least 25% more hours per year than their upper secondary counterparts in Norway (Table D4.1).
In this chapter, data on the working conditions of teachers refer to full-time fully qualified teachers in the reference year, as defined in each country. Although there are minimum qualification requirements (usually a tertiary qualification) to enter the teaching profession and become fully qualified teachers (see Chapter D6 in Education at a Glance 2023 (OECD, 2023[1])), some countries set other (higher or lower) qualification levels (see Chapter D3). In some countries, teachers’ qualifications may have an influence on their teaching hours. In these cases, the data on teaching time refer to typical qualification levels, that it to say the most prevalent qualification teachers hold. For example in France, general secondary teachers can have two different tertiary qualifications (certification or agrégation) which have different teaching requirements, and the teaching time cited for secondary teachers refers to those with certification, the most prevalent qualification at this level.
Data on teaching time refer to net contact time as stated in the regulations of each country. This international data collection exercise ensures that similar definitions and methodologies are used when compiling data from all countries. For example, teaching time is converted into hours (of 60 minutes) to avoid differences resulting from the varying length of teaching periods between countries.
Official documents might regulate teaching time as a minimum, typical or maximum time, and these differences may explain some of the differences reported between countries. Although most data refer to typical teaching time, about one-third of countries report either maximum or minimum values for teaching time. Some other countries report an average. For example, teaching time for the Flemish Community of Belgium is reported as a minimum for pre-primary and primary levels and as a weighted average at secondary level.
Statutory teaching time in this international comparison excludes preparation time and periods of time formally allowed for breaks between lessons or groups of lessons. However, at pre-primary and primary levels, short breaks (of ten minutes or less) are included in the teaching time when the classroom teacher is responsible for the class during these breaks (for example at the primary level in Austria, Italy, Korea, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Spain and Switzerland).
Data comparability is also enhanced by excluding professional development days (including attending conferences) and student examination days from teaching hours. At each level of general education, about two-thirds of the countries and other participants with available information were able to exclude the number of days spent on these activities when reporting statutory teaching time. However, in the rest of the countries, regulations do not always specify the number of days devoted to some of these activities and/or whether teachers are required to conduct these activities outside of scheduled teaching times, making it difficult to estimate and exclude them from teaching time.
Less than one-third of countries and other participants cannot exclude professional development days from reported teaching time at all levels of general education. In these countries, the regulations specify some days of professional development activities for all teachers, but the impact on reported teaching time is difficult to estimate as the number of days and how they are organised during the school year may vary across schools or subnational entities. About one-quarter of countries and other participants with available information cannot exclude student examination days from teaching time at each level of general education. In many of these countries, the regulations include some guidelines about the number of student examination days, but they are not clear about whether scheduled teaching time is reduced by the time devoted to examinations, or by how much. Overall, not excluding the time devoted to professional development and student examination may result in annual teaching time being overestimated by a few days in these countries.
Some professional development activities and student examinations may result in the overestimation of teaching time, even if countries are not asked to exclude them from teaching hours. Examples include professional development activities required for specific groups of teachers only (when regulations do not explicitly forbid them from participating during their scheduled teaching time) and compulsory standardised student assessments which are conducted for only a few hours of the school day. The complexity of estimation and the fact that only some teachers participate in these activities make it difficult to standardise reporting practices across all countries in order to exclude these activities from teaching time.
More detailed information on the reporting practices on teaching time and working time for all countries and other participants is available in Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en).
Statutory teaching time, as reported by most of the countries in this chapter, refers to teaching time as defined in regulations. However, individual teachers’ teaching time may differ from the regulations, for example because of overtime. Actual teaching time, which is the annual average number of hours that full-time teachers spend teaching a group or a class of students, including overtime and other activities ranging from keeping order to administrative tasks, provides a clearer picture of teachers’ actual teaching workload.
While only a few countries were able to report both statutory and actual teaching time, these data suggest that actual teaching time can differ from the statutory requirements. For example, upper secondary teachers in Colombia actually taught 8% more hours in 2022 than their 2021 statutory teaching time, while the difference was up to 25% more hours in Poland (see Table X3.D4.6 in Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en), and the OECD Data Explorer (OECD, 2024[2])).
Differences between statutory and actual teaching time may result from overtime due to teacher absences or shortages. The nature of the data can also contribute to differences, as figures on statutory teaching time refer to official requirements and agreements, whereas actual teaching time is based on administrative registers, statistical databases, representative sample surveys or other representative sources (for more details, see Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes - https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en).
In the majority of countries, teachers’ working time is partly determined by the statutory teaching time specified in working regulations. In addition, teachers in most countries are formally required to work a specific number of hours per year, as stipulated in collective agreements or other contractual arrangements. This may be specified either as the number of hours teachers must be available at school for teaching and non-teaching activities, or as the total number of working hours. Both correspond to official working hours as specified in contractual agreements, and countries differ in how they allocate time for each activity.
More than half of countries and other participants specify the length of time teachers are required to be available at school, for both teaching and non-teaching activities, for at least one level of education. In nearly half of the 17 countries with available data on the length of time teachers are required to be available at school at both pre-primary and upper secondary levels, the number of hours teachers are required to be available at school differs by less than 5% between these levels. Among the remaining countries and other participants, pre-primary teachers are required to be available at school for at least 20% more hours than upper secondary school teachers in the Flemish Community of Belgium, Hungary, Luxembourg, Portugal, Sweden and Türkiye, and the difference exceeds 40% in Latvia and Romania. Israel and Peru are the only countries where upper secondary teachers are required to be working at school at least 10% more hours than their pre-primary counterparts (Table D4.2). In contrast, despite large differences in working time required at schools between pre-primary and upper secondary levels, total statutory working time is the same for both levels in Hungary, Romania and Türkiye.
In some countries, the regulations specify teachers’ total annual statutory working time (at school and elsewhere), but not the allocation of time spent at school and time spent elsewhere. This is the case for all levels of education in about one-quarter of the OECD countries and other participants (Bulgaria, Czechia, England [United Kingdom], Germany, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Switzerland) and for some of the levels of education in Estonia (primary and secondary education), France (secondary education) and the French Community of Belgium (pre-primary and primary education) (Table D4.2 and (Figure D4.2).
The variations across countries in teachers’ annual working hours can be partly due to whether their total working time covers the periods when students are on school vacations. For example, at general upper secondary level, total working time is 1 269 hours for teachers in Israel, where they are not required to work during school vacations, and 1 810 hours in Switzerland, where they work up to 8 weeks during school vacations (Figure D4.2). In 21 countries and other participants, teachers’ statutory working time includes working during students’ school holidays in at least one level of education. In most, teachers are required to spend the working time during school holidays on specific activities, such as preparation for the next term, or individual and/or collective professional development activities (see Table X3.D4.5 in Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes - https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en).
Although teaching time is a substantial component of teachers’ workloads, other activities such as assessing students, preparing lessons, correcting students’ work, in-service training and staff meetings should also be taken into account when analysing the demands placed on teachers in different countries. The amount of time available for these non-teaching activities varies across countries; a larger share of statutory working time spent teaching may indicate that a smaller share of time is devoted to these activities.
Even though teaching is a core activity for teachers, they spend most of their working time on activities other than teaching in many countries. In the 26 countries and other participants with data for both teaching and total working time for upper secondary teachers, 43% of teachers’ working time is spent on teaching on average, with the proportion ranging from less than 32% in Japan, Norway and Türkiye, to 61% or more in Luxembourg, Peru and Scotland (United Kingdom) (Figure D4.3).
Although the proportion of working time spent teaching tends to increase with the number of teaching hours per year, there are some differences among countries. For example, Luxembourg and the Netherlands have a similar number of teaching hours at upper secondary level (739 hours per year in Luxembourg and 720 hours in the Netherlands), but 62% of teachers’ working time is spent on teaching in Luxembourg, compared to 43% in the Netherlands. In some other countries, teachers devote similar proportions of their working time to teaching, despite having considerably different teaching hours. For example, in both Colombia and Portugal, upper secondary teachers spend about 48% of their working time teaching, but teachers teach for 616 hours per year in Portugal, compared to 827 hours in Colombia (Figure D4.3).
A few countries and other participants have no formal requirements about the amount of time teachers spend on non-teaching activities, at least at some levels of education. This is the case in countries that only define the number of teaching hours per year, and not the annual number of working hours (at school or elsewhere), such as Austria (primary and secondary levels), Brazil, Costa Rica, the French Community of Belgium (lower and upper secondary levels), Italy, Mexico and Slovenia (Table D4.2). However, this does not mean that teachers are given total freedom to carry out other tasks. In Italy, teachers are required to perform up to 80 hours of scheduled non-teaching collegial work at school per year. Of these 80 hours, up to 40 hours are dedicated to meetings of the teachers’ assembly, staff planning meetings and meetings with parents, with the remaining 40 compulsory hours dedicated to class councils (Table X3.D4.5 in Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes - https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en).
Non-teaching tasks are a part of teachers’ workloads and working conditions. The non-teaching activities required by legislation, regulations or agreements between stakeholders (e.g. teachers’ unions, local authorities and school boards) do not necessarily reflect teachers’ actual participation in non-teaching activities, but they provide an insight into the breadth and complexity of teachers’ roles.
Individual teachers often have no choice about whether or not to perform certain tasks related to teaching. According to regulations for general upper secondary teachers, individual planning or preparing lessons, marking and correcting student work, and communicating and co-operating with parents are three non-teaching tasks that are mandatory for teachers during their statutory working time in at least 37 out of the 43 countries and other participants with available data. General administrative work and teamwork, and dialogue with colleagues are also required in at least 31 countries, and can be decided at the school level in at least 5 other countries with available data (Table D4.3, available on line).
Responsibilities such as being class/form teacher, participating in mentoring programmes and/or supporting new teachers in induction programmes, or participating in school or other management in addition to teaching duties are widely distributed among general upper secondary teachers (as they are either mandatory for teachers or mandatory at the discretion of schools in more than half of countries). Of the various responsibilities teachers might take on, full-time classroom teachers in general upper secondary education are either required or asked to perform student counselling in nearly three out of four countries and other participants with available information (Box D4.3). However, in some countries, not all teachers are eligible to perform student counselling. For example, in Israel, only teachers with a master’s degree or higher can perform this duty (Table D4.4, available on line).
Teachers can also take on responsibilities voluntarily. At upper secondary level (in general programmes), in at least 22 countries and other participants, individual teachers decide to take on tasks such as engaging in extracurricular activities or training student teachers. Teaching more classes or hours than their full-time contract requires is also a voluntary decision by teachers in nearly half of countries and other participants (Table D4.4, available on line).
Participation in professional development activities is considered an important responsibility of teachers at all levels of education, as it is mandatory for all teachers at all levels in at least 26 countries and other participants and is required at the discretion of individual schools in at least 9 countries. Only three countries (Israel, Norway and Portugal) allow teachers to participate in professional development activities at their own discretion at all levels (Table D4.4, available on line). Regardless of these requirements, a large majority of teachers in OECD countries participate in professional development activities (OECD, 2019[3]).
In general, requirements to perform certain tasks and responsibilities do not vary much between levels of education. However, there can be some differences reflecting the changing needs of students at different levels of education. For example, supervising students during breaks is mandatory for teachers in more countries at pre-primary level (26 countries), than at primary (24 countries), lower secondary (17 countries) and upper secondary (16 countries) (Table D4.3, available on line).
Differences in tasks’ requirements between countries could help to explain the differences in the proportion of statutory working time spent on non-teaching tasks and responsibilities. For example, Japan is one of the 10 countries where engaging in extracurricular activities is mandatory at the discretion of schools at lower secondary level (Table D4.4, available on line) and lower secondary teachers in Japan reported spending the highest proportion of actual working time on this responsibility (13%) among OECD countries (OECD, 2019[3])
Number of countries and other participants, in public institutions
Note: "Mandatory for some" indicates that the specified task or responsibility is mandatory at the discretion of individual schools or in some subnational entities. "Financial incentive" indicates the task results in an allowance or additional payments for teachers.
Tasks and responsibilities are listed in decreasing order of the number of countries and other participants where the specified item is mandatory to some extent.
See Tables D4.3 and D4.4, available online, for data and under Chapter D4 Tables for StatLink. For more information see Source section and Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en).
Regardless of whether they are mandatory or not, teachers may receive some compensation for performing additional tasks and responsibilities, either in the form of reduced teaching time or through allowances or additional remuneration on top of their base salaries according to different criteria (see Chapter D3 for the criteria for additional payments). At upper secondary level, as at other levels of education, the number of countries awarding teachers an allowance or additional payments varies depending on the tasks and responsibilities concerned. Tasks and activities that were considered voluntary in a larger proportion of countries were also those for which teachers were provided an allowance or additional payment in a larger proportion of countries. For example, few countries require teachers to mentor new teachers; and an allowance or additional payment is generally offered to teachers for volunteering to do so (Figure D4.4).
Tasks related to teaching such as individual planning or preparing lessons, marking and correcting student work, and communicating and co-operating with parents are rarely compensated. At upper secondary level, performing these tasks results in an additional payment or allowance in 5 countries or less (less than 12% of the countries where these tasks are either mandatory or voluntary). However, more than two-thirds of countries and other participants (where tasks are mandatory or voluntary) offer financial compensation to teachers at upper secondary level for teaching more classes or hours than their full-time contract requires (Figure D4.4 and Table D4.4, available on line). This may be explained by the fact that this task is directly related to teachers’ main role and that the status of teachers clearly defines the number of hours they are expected to teach, so they need to be compensated for any additional hours of teaching.
Participation in school or other management activities can result in additional compensation for teachers in more than half of the countries and other participants with available data. In some, their teaching time might be reduced to balance the workload between teaching and other responsibilities, in addition to financial compensation (Figure D4.4 and Table D4.4, available on line).
Student counselling – encompassing student supervision, virtual counselling, career guidance and delinquency prevention – is a common responsibility of teachers in OECD countries and other participants, and many studies support its role in promoting access to educational and professional opportunities to students of all backgrounds (OECD, 2022[4]). Whether or not teachers are compensated (through reduced teaching time or financial incentives) for taking on this responsibility, teachers must have adequate and high-quality training if student counselling is to deliver on its potential to improve educational equity (OECD, 2022[4]).
As with all non-teaching activities and responsibilities of teachers, education systems differ in whether they require teachers to engage in student counselling and whether or how they are compensated for doing so. Among countries and other participants with available data and where teachers can engage in student counselling, this task is either mandatory for all teachers or mandatory at the discretion of schools at pre-primary level in at least two-thirds of them, and in upper secondary schools in nearly three-quarters of them (Figure D4.5 and Table D4.4, available online).
Education systems differ in their provision of student counselling at upper secondary level. In the Flemish Community of Belgium, Iceland, Ireland, Poland and Türkiye, teachers are neither required nor incentivised (through financial allowances or reduced teaching time) to participate in student counselling, although these services are frequently made available to students via other means. In Türkiye for example, psychological counselling and guidance services are available in schools at every education level. Similarly, in Ireland, there are no student counselling requirements on teachers, but enhancing the availability of guidance counselling in schools with high concentrations of disadvantage is an important element in programmes aiming at improving equity (OECD, 2012[5]).
Participation in student counselling is voluntary for teachers in the French Community of Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Mexico and the Slovak Republic, but incentives to take on this activity vary between countries. In Czechia and Germany, teachers may benefit from reduced teaching hours or financial compensation under specific circumstances (for example when they complete the required professional training in Czechia), while no such incentives exist in the French Community of Belgium or Mexico. In the Slovak Republic, teachers who volunteer to engage in student counselling are entitled to reduced teaching time and schools have the option to provide direct financial compensation (Table D4.4, available on line).
Schools decide whether to include student counselling in teachers’ responsibilities in 14 countries and other participants. Whether teachers are offered compensation for this responsibility also varies in these countries. In 4 of them (Australia, Austria, Israel and Romania) schools have to provide some financial compensation to teachers who are required to participate in student counselling. In another 17 countries and other participants, student counselling is explicitly one of the tasks required of teachers, and they receive no compensation for carrying it out in 12 of them (Bulgaria, Colombia, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Japan, Latvia, Portugal, Scotland [United Kingdom], Peru, Slovenia and Switzerland). In four countries (Costa Rica, Korea, Luxembourg and Spain), student counselling is an obligation for teachers, and schools have the autonomy to decide whether and how to compensate teachers for this responsibility. France is the only country where student counselling is both a core responsibility of teachers and contributes to teachers’ entitlement to fixed annual salary bonuses (the Indemnité de suivi et d'accompagnement des élèves for pre-primary and primary teachers and the Indemnité de suivi et d'orientation des élèves for secondary teachers) (Table D4.4, available online).
Actual teaching time is the annual average number of hours that full-time teachers teach a group or class of students. It includes all extra hours, such as overtime. Data on these hours can be sourced from administrative registers, statistical databases, representative sample surveys or other representative sources.
The number of teaching days is the number of teaching weeks multiplied by the number of days per week a teacher teaches, minus the number of days on which the school is closed for holidays.
The number of teaching weeks refers to the number of weeks of instruction excluding holiday weeks.
Statutory teaching time is defined as the scheduled number of 60-minute hours per year that a full-time teacher teaches a group or class of students, as set by policy, their employment contracts or other official documents. Teaching time can be defined on a weekly or annual basis. Annual teaching time is normally calculated as the number of teaching days per year multiplied by the number of hours a teacher teaches per day (excluding preparation time). It is a net contact time for instruction, as it excludes periods of time formally allowed for breaks between lessons or groups of lessons and the days that the school is closed for holidays. At pre-primary and primary levels, short breaks between lessons are included if the classroom teacher is responsible for the class during these breaks.
Total statutory working time refers to the number of hours that a full-time teacher is expected to work as set by policy. It can be defined on a weekly or annual basis. It does not include paid overtime. According to a country’s formal policy, working time can refer to:
the time directly associated with teaching and other curricular activities for students, such as assignments and tests.
the time directly associated with teaching and other activities related to teaching, such as preparing lessons, counselling students, correcting assignments and tests, professional development, meetings with parents, staff meetings, and general school tasks.
Working time required at school (of teachers) refers to the time teachers are required to spend working at school, including teaching and non-teaching time.
In interpreting differences in teaching hours among countries, net contact time, as used here, does not necessarily correspond to the teaching load. Although contact time is a substantial component of teachers’ workloads, preparing for classes and necessary follow-up, including correcting students’ work, also need to be included when making comparisons. Other relevant elements, such as the number of subjects taught, the number of students taught and the number of years a teacher teaches the same students, should also be taken into account.
For more information please see the OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparable Education Statistics 2018 (OECD, 2018[6]) and Education at a Glance 2024 Sources, Methodologies and Technical Notes (https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en) for country-specific notes.
Data are from the 2023 OECD-INES-NESLI Survey on Working Time of Teachers and refer to the school year 2022/23 (statutory information) or school year 2021/22 (actual data), unless otherwise indicated.
References
[2] OECD (2024), “Education and Skills”, OECD Data Explorer, http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/5q (accessed on 10 September 2024).
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[3] OECD (2019), TALIS 2018 Results (Volume I): Teachers and School Leaders as Lifelong Learners, TALIS, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/1d0bc92a-en.
[6] OECD (2018), OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics 2018: Concepts, Standards, Definitions and Classifications, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304444-en.
[5] OECD (2012), Equity and Quality in Education: Supporting Disadvantaged Students and Schools, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264130852-en.
Cut-off date for the data: 14 June 2024. Any updates on data and more breakdowns can be found on the OECD Data Explorer (http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/5q).
Number of statutory teaching weeks, teaching days and net teaching hours in public institutions over the school year
Note: See under Chapter D4 Tables for StatLink and Box D4.4 for the notes related to this Table.
Teachers' statutory working time at school and total working time in public institutions over the reference year
Note: See under Chapter D4 Tables for StatLink and Box D4.4 for the notes related to this Table.
Table D4.1. Organisation of teachers' teaching time (2023)
Data on vocational programmes at lower secondary level (Columns 4, 10 and 16) are available for consultation on line (see StatLink).
1. Typical teaching time (teaching time required from most teachers when no specific circumstances apply to teachers).
2. Maximum teaching time.
3. Minimum teaching time.
4. Average planned teaching time in each school at the beginning of the school year.
5. Actual teaching time (in Latvia except for pre-primary level).
6. Year of reference 2021.
Table D4.2. Organisation of teachers' working time (2023)
Data on vocational programmes at lower secondary level (Columns 4 and 10) are available for consultation on line (see StatLink).
1. Total working time requirements refer to those of civil servants.
2. Year of reference 2021.
See Definitions and Methodology sections and Education at a Glance 2024 Sources Methodologies and Technical Notes (https://doi.org/10.1787/e7d20315-en) for more information.
Data and more breakdowns are available on the OECD Data Explorer (http://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/5q).
Please refer to the Reader's Guide for information concerning symbols for missing data and abbreviations.