Saxony's teachers work an average of 2.5 hours of overtime per week during school time. This is the result of the working time survey conducted by the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs in the 2024/2025 school year. The overtime in teaching weeks is compensated during the vacations.
On average, full-time employees work eight hours per working day as planned. The average target of 33.3 hours per week (including vacations and public vacations) calculated by the researchers is undercut by 0.6 percent or just under a quarter of an hour.
Part-time employees work significantly more
The picture is different for part-time employees. They accumulate almost four hours of overtime during school weeks. With compensation during vacations, this amounts to 5.8 percent or just under one and a half hours of overtime per week. Head teachers are also well above the target with a good 2.5 hours.
However, working hours are not evenly distributed among teachers. "The range is incredibly wide," said Kristina Stegner from Prognos at the presentation of the survey results. Around half of full-time employees work more than the planned working hours, the other half less, while 60 percent of part-time employees work more. In exceptional cases, teachers work an annual average of 15 hours overtime or 15 hours less per week.
Study with around 4,000 participants
The study was carried out by the Prognos Institute on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs. 3,772 teachers and 386 head teachers took part in the representative study. This corresponds to 14 percent of all teachers and 19 percent of all head teachers in Saxony. They documented their working hours throughout the 2024/2025 school year. The researchers also asked them at various points in time about their perception of stress. The selection was based on a random sample and was mandatory for those selected.
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