FeSP-UGT demands a decrease of the excessive number of direct teaching hours

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On the occasion of the World Teachers’ Day (5th October 2017), the Spanish trade union and ETUCE member organisation "FeSP-UGT" launched its 2017 World Teachers’ Campaign “Teachers are essential”, including a manifesto and e-poster. The campaign continues throughout the school-year with the purpose of empowering teachers as prerequisite for quality teaching. This month, in November 2017, FeSP-UGT campaign is focused on ‘tackling the excessive number of direct teaching hours of teachers with their students’.

In particular, FeSP-UGT states that “Spanish teachers lack time to have the necessary availability to dedicate to other relevant activities for quality teaching. This is a direct consequence of the numerous social and economic cuts that have undermined their working-conditions”. Indeed, the excessive number of teaching hours causes that teachers lack the necessary working-time to prepare classes, to tutoring, to pedagogical training and innovation, to work further on the promotion of educational diversity and equity, to the provision of personalised learning and other didactic complementary actions. In addition, an excessive number of teaching hours entails difficulties for school-organisation and teaching support, less teaching staff, deterioration of working-conditions, as well as an increase of psychosocial risks and work-related stress for teachers.

Within the particular theme for November 2017 campaign, FeSP-UGT demands:

  • Decrease of teaching load: Maximum of 18 hours in Secondary school and maximum of 20 hours in primary school; 
  • Reduction of the workday to 35 hours; 
  • Weekly distribution of hours according to the needs of the students and of the educational centre.

ETUCE supports FeSP-UGT’s demands and reiterates that the defense and promotion of better working-conditions for teachers and the enhancement of the teaching profession at all levels of education is the core work for ETUCE, as asserted for example in the 2016 Resolutions for Quality Education and for the Status and recognition of the teaching profession in Higher education, as well as, among other EU-funded projects, within the ongoing ETUCE project ‘Teachers’ professional needs in social dialogue’.

For more information on FeSP-UGT 2017 campaign “Docentes imprescindibles”, please click here and here.