Secondary school teachers in England work 46.9 hours on average, resulting in the fourth highest workload of countries polled by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) with Japan, Kazakhstan and Canada in the top three.
Education secretary Damian Hinds said: “These findings reflect many of the frustrations that I heard from teachers and heads when I first took on the role of education secretary and underlines the importance of the teacher recruitment and retention strategy, that I launched in January of this year.
“We know that too many teachers are having to work too many hours each week on unnecessary tasks, which is why I have taken on a battle to reduce teachers’ workload so that they can focus on spending their time in the classroom doing what they do best – teaching.”
In addition to increased working hours, it was found that less time is spent on teaching than the last time the survey was taken in 2013. The report also found that more experienced teachers received less CPD on student behaviour and classroom management, and overall participation for England was lower than the average of countries surveyed.
On a positive note, teachers in England were more likely to have received an induction at their current school, with 77% of respondents participating in this compared to an average of 42 per cent across all OECD countries. Equally teachers from England were more likely to have an assigned mentor in their first five years.
Further reading:
Schools Week – Teacher workload has increased, and 8 other findings from TALIS 2018
TES News – Teachers in England work longest hours in Europe