Education Ministry to study how teachers spend working time

Estonia’s Education Ministry will commission a study to identify teachers’ duties and how much time they take, ERR reports. The ministry plans to spend 70,000 euros on the study, which will also produce recommendations for keeping teachers’ workloads within the working hours set by law.

The study will map teachers’ duties under Estonia’s current legislation, assess the time they require from the perspectives of teachers and school leaders, and develop recommendations for education policymakers, school owners, school leaders and teachers.

Liis Lehiste, an adviser in the ministry’s education management and teacher policy department, said the aim was to support teachers and help them remain in the profession by promoting good and sustainable working conditions.

“This requires a better understanding of the factors that affect teachers’ workloads and their ability to manage their work well,” Lehiste said.

Under the Basic Schools and Upper Secondary Schools Act, teachers’ working time is divided between direct teaching and educational work and other duties arising from employment contracts, job descriptions, workplace rules or assignments from the employer. A government regulation adopted in 2013 sets teachers’ working time at 35 hours a week.

In addition to classroom hours, teachers plan and prepare lessons, provide feedback on students’ work, communicate with parents, cooperate with colleagues and work individually with students. Results from TALIS, the international study of teachers and learning, show that teachers often assess their workload as greater than their official working hours, Lehiste said.

Estonia’s education information system collects data on teachers’ classroom hours, but does not capture all the other duties involved in their work.

The study will also examine links between teachers’ workloads and their age, gender and length of service. Existing studies and data do not clearly show how school-level factors such as management practices, work organisation and cooperation culture affect teachers’ workloads.

“We need an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of what teachers’ working time is spent on, which practices support its efficient use, and how teachers’ work can be organised so that their duties fit within the legally prescribed 35-hour working week,” Lehiste said.

The study is intended to produce practical recommendations on how to organise teachers’ work more effectively. Its results could indicate a need for changes to work organisation, guidelines, in-service training or legislation, Lehiste added.