Teachers Working Too Much

Excessive workloads are causing Scottish teachers to work an extra eleven hours a week.

That's according to a survey by the EIS union, which found they're doing 46 and a half hours a week.

The EIS says this means they are working an extra 33% of weekly hours on top of their contractual 35 hour week. More than 3500 teachers across Scotland took part and recorded their working hours for the EIS workload survey during the Fortnight Focus.

Fife Council says it's struggling to fill 125 teacher vacancies in the region.

Commenting, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said the results make for "some worrying reading."

He said: "Some teachers are working well above 50 hours a week, with potentially serious implications for their health due to the risk of stress and stress-related illness. 

"It is clear that the current situation is unsustainable, and that urgent steps must be taken by the Scottish Government, local authorities and national education bodies to reduce the crippling workload burden that is being placed on Scotland’s teachers.”
 
Back in 2000, EIS evidence to the McCrone Enquiry cited 42 hours as being the average working week of teachers. This fed into negotiations that led to the 35 hour working contract. However, the EIS survey highlights that teacher workload is "again a huge issue" and the body claims the situation is worse than it was fifteen years ago before the 21st Century Teaching Agreement was reached.
 
Mr Flanagan said, “The workload picture is similar for teachers in all sectors and at all grades, and for teachers on full-time contracts or part-time contracts. No matter what the individual contractual commitment, the evidence gathered during the Fortnight Focus demonstrates that high levels of additional working are the norm for Scotland’s teachers.”
 
In the Primary Sector, the average teacher spent 9.3 hours on preparation and correction, where the default contractual position (for a full-time teacher) sets aside 7.5 hours. Planning took, on average, 3.4 hours per week for primary teachers. Assessment took 1.3 hours and reporting consumed 2.3 hours of a teachers’ time.
 
Commenting, Larry Flanagan said, “Despite the welcome advice in the CfE Tackling Bureaucracy Report, it is clear from our survey data that a cottage industry still exists in relation to primary forward planning. Looking at just five key areas of a primary teacher’s responsibility – class teaching, preparation and correction, planning, assessment and reporting – teachers are bursting through the 35 hour contractual commitment before they have even got to other areas such as staff meetings, professional development, parental liaison, curricular development and so on.”
 
A similar picture exists in Secondary schools, where teachers spent 8.5 hours on preparation & correction, 2.5 hours planning, 2.7 hours on assessment and 1.5 hours on curricular development.

'Worse than 15 years ago'

Larry Flanagan commented, “The workload burden is no lighter in the Secondary sector, although the breakdown of working hours is slightly different to that in the Primary sector. Reflecting the workload burdens around the new qualifications and CfE roll-out in the sector, Secondary teachers spend a greater amount of time on assessment (2.7 hours) and curricular development (1.5 hours). Combined with teaching, planning and preparation and correction, Secondary teachers are again exceeding 35 hours a week on these duties alone.”
 
Mr Flanagan said, “The Fortnight Focus has produced some very robust data, and the EIS will use these results to support discussions at both local and national level to reduce excessive workload. In particular, we will continue the push to cut unnecessary bureaucracy in order to free up more of a teacher’s time the for core learning and teaching related activities that actually benefit pupils.”
 
He added, “The EIS has already shared the information from the Fortnight Focus with school Reps to support them in discussions on their own school’s Working Time Agreement. It is clear from the data that more realistic time allocations will have to be agreed for some tasks, and that School Improvement Plans will have to be trimmed to make them more manageable. The information will also feed into Local Negotiating Committee for Teachers (LNCT) negotiations on teacher workload and tackling bureaucracy, and will be utilised by the EIS nationally to support work to deliver the recommendations of the government’s Tackling Bureaucracy group.”