Scottish teachers work longer than average, says international study

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. 0 Larry Flanagan, general secretary of EIS teaching union

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 per cent of their working time in the classroom teaching, behind only Colombia at around 75 per cent.

Teachers’ pay in Scotland was shown to be slightly under the OECD average and behind England, despite the report finding a 10 per cent decrease in pay in England between 2005 and 2017 compared to a slight drop in Scotland.

Larry Flanagan, general secretary of the EIS teaching union, said the study confirmed “Scotland’s teachers work some of the longest hours” while at the same time enduring a “real-terms pay cut of at least 24 per cent over the past decade”.