Do students spend enough time learning? 

In some countries and economies, such as Beijing-Shanghai-Jiangsu-Guangdong (China), Qatar,Thailand, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates, students spend at least 54 hours per week learning at and outside of school combined, whereas in others, like Finland, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Uruguay, students spend less than 40 hours studying.

Students in Australia, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden and Switzerland show the best balance between total learning time and academic performance.

In school systems where students spend more time in regular science lessons, average science scores are higher; but when students spend more time studying science after school, average science scores are lower.

Studying more hours does not necessarily lead to better learning outcomes

The bottom line It is difficult to tell how much time students should spend learning, but it seems clear that many students are spending too much time studying after school – at least more than it seems reasonable if they want to lead a balanced life. Studying and learning after school might not only be inequitable, depending on the quality and availability of after-school learning opportunities, it might also be a lessefficient way of meeting challenging academic standards than learning in regular school lessons. To help students avoid spending a disproportionate amount of time doing homework, receiving additional instruction and studying after school, policy makers, schools, teachers, parents and students should redouble their efforts to make students’ learning time at school more productive. 

How much time do students spend in the classroom?

Education Indicators in focus

• Students in OECD countries are expected to receive a total of 7 751 hours of instruction on average during their primary and lower secondary education – the bulk of that time is compulsory.
• In general, the higher the level of education, the greater the number of instruction hours a year.
• Reading, mathematics and science take up around 50% of the compulsory curricular time in primary education but only 40% at the lower secondary level.
• The wide variation in instruction hours across OECD countries suggests there is little consensus on the most effective policies related to school time.

The number of instruction hours pupils are expected to receive varies significantly between countries but the total time matters less than how the time is spent, on which subjects, and the strength of the curriculum. Reading and mathematics have the largest share at the primary level, while time for science, social studies and modern foreign languages increases in lower secondary school, and technology is given relatively little emphasis at both levels.

The 10 countries with the highest instruction time have a mean PISA score for mathematics, which is 20 score-points below that of the 10 countries with the lowest amount of instruction time.