Teachers work an average of more than 50 hours a week, 15 more than the legally defined hours, on tasks such as preparing classes, supporting students with difficulties, correcting tests but also bureaucratic tasks.
Teachers' hours are 35 hours a week, but, on average, teachers in the 2nd and 3rd cycles as well as those in secondary education work 50 hours and 15 minutes, according to preliminary data from a survey carried out by Fenprof, between September and October 2023.
On average, they are working 15 hours more per week than is stipulated by law and to carry out all the tasks they have to steal time “from their personal life”, Vitor Godinho, Fenprof union delegate, told Lusa.
Many of the hours they dedicate to students and schools are not paid: “they are work pro bono», criticized the union leader, noting that the situation has worsened in recent years.
In 2017, teachers worked, on average, 47 hours a week, now it is three and a half hours a week.
The survey that Lusa had access to reveals that teachers spend, on average, 16 hours and 35 minutes teaching, and another 18 hours to carry out tasks such as preparing classes and carrying out student assessments.
These two components practically reach the legal weekly duration of the timetable, which is 35 hours, but teachers have many other tasks, warned the union leader.
There is work done in schools that ranges from pedagogical positions, to supporting students, administrative tasks, meetings, replacing absent colleagues or supporting students in the classroom.
On average, teachers spend 15 hours and 45 minutes on the “non-teaching component of the establishment”, according to the survey.
In the case of teachers with class management positions or department coordination, the study indicates that they far exceed the hours allocated to them for this purpose.
Class directors have two hours to carry out this work, but the study indicates that they spend, on average, four hours and 18 minutes.
Vitor Godinho believes that the reality is even more worrying, since these teachers have to hold meetings with colleagues, be available to solve student problems and receive parents, respond and send emails to those in charge of education, in addition to other missions such as carrying out survey of student absences, «one by one, of all students in all subjects».
Excessive bureaucratic workload is another problem, consuming more than four hours a week.
Currently, «teachers spend one more hour a week on bureaucratic tasks than on supporting their students», lamented the union leader.
Support for students represents almost three hours per week, according to the study, which reveals a «flagrant situation of overwork» and many tasks to be carried out in unrecorded hours.
Fenprof therefore has a set of measures that it wants to see applied, which include limiting the number of students and classes assigned and redefining what is a teaching and non-teaching component.
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