The article addresses the problem of teacher bureaucracy in Portugal and its impact on the professional time available for teaching. The author, a teacher and researcher at CIEP and doctoral student at the University of Évora, argues that the way teachers' time is used is a decisive dimension for school quality, although it is often less visible than debates about teacher shortages, schedules or career progression.
The TALIS 2024 results, an OECD survey, reveal that 79% of Portuguese lower secondary teachers identify excessive administrative work as a source of stress, the same percentage that cites pressure for student results and 77% excessive grading workload. Paradoxically, full-time teachers work an average of 40.5 hours per week, of which only 2.8 are dedicated to administrative work. The author explains that the pressure depends not only on the number of hours, but on the fragmentation of tasks and the interruptions they cause to central professional activities.
The article also highlights that Portuguese teachers dedicate 6.9 hours per week to grading and assessment, above the OECD average of 4.6 hours, and that only 4% of surveyed teachers believe their opinions are valued by policymakers. The author proposes measures such as reviewing non-teaching tasks, eliminating repeated requests for information and abolishing reports without demonstrated usefulness, warning that digitizing old forms does not solve the problem, it only accelerates it.
