Nation’s teachers working longer hours than international average

Hours teachers in Scotland can be required to work are higher than average, an international education survey has shown.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report shows primary and secondary school teachers in Scotland can be asked to teach for up to 855 hours per year, compared to an OECD average ranging from 784-656 hours.

The report found teaching time tops 800 hours in just seven places surveyed – Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Latvia, Mexico, the US and Scotland.

In Chile and Scotland these are the maximum hours teachers could be required to teach, not the typical workload.

Researchers found Scottish teachers spend more than 60% of their working time in the classroom teaching, behind only Colombia at 75%. Pay in Scotland was shown to be slightly under the OECD average and behind England, despite the report finding a 10% fall in pay in England between 2005-2017 compared to a slight drop in Scotland.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said: “These international comparisons confirm Scotland’s teachers work some of the longest hours of any OECD country with a very high percentage of time spent in front of the class.

“Coupled with the country’s continuing slide down international comparisons on pay, where Scotland’s teachers have endured a real-terms pay cut of at least 24% over the past decade, this highlights the damaging combination of soaring workload and declining pay facing Scotland’s teachers.

“This has created a situation where teaching is no longer a desirable career.”