There is periodic public debate about teachers' working hours and their time off. These debates tend to intensify, especially when summer break, mid-term breaks, religious holidays, and other public holidays come up.
In this regard, it is a legal requirement for teachers to complete the 180 working days set for the academic year; however, this period does not cover all the duties teachers perform. While teachers’ primary duty is to teach lessons or subjects in the classroom, their workload is not limited to this alone. For instance;
-Lesson preparation,
-Student assessment,
-Administrative duties,
-School events,
-Activities such as professional development and meetings are also among teachers' various responsibilities.
In TALIS 2024, in addition to a single aggregate value for teachers’ total weekly working hours, the time spent on specific tasks is also assessed and tallied separately. Since the survey does not limit teachers’ responses, the total time spent on specific tasks (e.g., teaching, lesson planning, assessment and evaluation, parent communication, etc.) may exceed the reported total working time. Therefore, the distribution of working time allocated to different types of activities is analyzed based on their share of the total time teachers dedicate to all tasks.
The weekly working hours of teachers in Turkey are below the OECD average. While middle school teachers in OECD countries report working an average of 41 hours per week, teachers in Turkey report working 31.1 hours. These figures indicate that the total working hours of teachers in Turkey are significantly below the OECD average. Additionally, the total working hours of teachers in Turkey have decreased by 1.3 hours compared to 2018. Teachers in Turkey work shorter hours than their counterparts in OECD countries.
When examining the time allocated to specific tasks, teachers in Turkey reported spending an average of 22.3 hours per week on teaching activities. This figure is quite close to the OECD average (22.7 hours); however, there has been a decrease of 2.6 hours compared to 2018. Teachers reported that they spent the most time on lesson preparation (4.5 hours) and assessing student work (2.7 hours). In contrast, on average across the OECD, teachers dedicate 7.4 hours and 4.6 hours, respectively, to these activities. This difference indicates that teachers in Turkey spend less time on non-instructional academic preparation and assessment processes compared to the OECD average.
According to the TALIS 2024 findings, Turkey is the country where teachers spend the least amount of time on lesson planning and lesson preparation.
This finding suggests that teachers prefer to use ready-made lesson plans rather than creating their own annual and daily plans, and that they do not devote sufficient attention to lesson preparation.
Sources
WHAT DOES TALIS 2024 REVEAL ABOUT TURKEY? TEDMEM-2024