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Aussie Teachers Work Some Of The Longest Hours In The World, New Data Reveals

Aussie Teachers Work Some Of The Longest Hours In The World, New Data Reveals

Next time you see a teacher, tell them how much you appreciate the work they do.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

Teachers rarely get the praise and acknowledgement for the role they serve in the community to effectively teach kids everything they need to know before they go into the big, wild world of being an adult.

While there's no doubt that loads of educators across the planet work really hard at their job, new figures have revealed which country has the longest working staff.

A survey from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states Australian high-school teachers worked an average of 44.8 hours a week on their job.

That's a whopping six hours longer than the global average.

PA

While that might seem absurd, Japanese teachers take the cake, with the average putting in 56 hours a week. Following Japan is Alberta in Canada, England, the US and New Zealand.

On the flip side, Italian educators put in around 30 hours a week.

Australian Council of Educational Research chief executive Sue Thompson told the Sydney Morning Herald: "We're always talking about extra things that teachers need to be doing, different skills they need, but we don't give them time to do the things that we know make them good teachers.

"It's important that teachers get time to reflect, to observe other teachers and talk to mentors, but we're not allowing them any of that time.

"Particularly for young teachers, for those who have been teaching under five years, I think that's really important."

PA

Interestingly, Aussie teachers spend 25 hours of the 44.8 on non-teaching tasks. That includes lesson planning, marking tests, assignments or exams and general administration.

That figure alone is way above the global average of 18.2 hours and ranks us fourth in the world with only Japan, England and New Zealand doing more.

The study found loads of countries have experienced an increase in the average working day for educators, which experts say just increases the stress that teachers have to endure.

Save our Schools national convenor Trevor Cobbold said: "What that does is it puts much more pressure on teachers in terms of working outside teaching hours, it detracts from the time they can put into planning lessons, mentoring students who have fallen behind and devoting time outside class hours to students at risk."

So next time you see a teacher, tell them how much you appreciate the work they do.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Interesting, Community, Australia