Included in teachers' full-time hours, i.e. 35 hours a week, are statutory teaching time – meaning time spent actively teaching – feedback, lesson planning as well as other tasks.

During education agreement negotiations held at the start of the week, the Estonian Education Personnel Union (EHL) presented a proposal by which teachers' weekly working hours would consist of 16 statutory teaching hours plus other tasks that fit within 35 hours; all additional hours would be calculated based on an "open account" principle.

In contrast, a member of the Association of Estonian Cities and Municipalities (ELVL) suggested increasing teachers' weekly hours from 35 to 40 instead. ELVL executive director Veikko Luhalaid nonetheless confirmed that this did not represent the association's official position.

"We still need to further brainstorm our positions and then reach a proposal that isn't emotionally driven," Luhalaid said. "Let's say that one person voiced it out loud, but many have discussed it over coffee, and now we haven't had the chance to properly discuss these topics in order to present this as the association's position."

According to the association chief, however, the idea behind extending teachers' workweek, in short, is that people are different, but there are already teachers who are working more than 35 hours a week. A 40-hour workweek would help ensure that work is being done within official working hours, thus reducing the number of overtime hours and also ensuring that they are paid for their work, Luhalaid explained.

"Currently the law states 35 hours, but how do we interpret that so that all parties understand exactly what this entails?" he pointed out. "Is it reasonable to go from 35 hours to 40 hours, or are they right who proposed 16 statutory teaching hours plus additional tasks within 35 hours, and the rest should be paid? That is also worth discussing as well."

Minister of Education and Research Kristina Kallas (Eesti 200) likewise said that the aforementioned proposals are not official ones, adding that official proposals are being accepted through the start of April.

"Offered up right now were views on what we could discuss when discussing teachers' workload and conditions," Kallas noted.

According to the minister, however, a longer workweek won't solve teachers' problems.

"They are currently paid for overtime hours, but in the future those additional five hours would be included in their base salary," she explained. "This would essentially rob them of one of the bonuses that come with this profession – that yes, teaching is very intensive work, you have to deal with highly stressful situations, the pay isn't actually very high, but this profession comes with a 35-hour workweek and 56 days of summer vacation. These are the pros and cons that should ultimately balance each other out."

Tartu Variku School principal Peeter Kikkas said they can discuss a longer workweek, but right now it's difficult to understand what problem they want to solve with longer hours.

"Perhaps it would solve the issue that some teachers wouldn't work overtime anymore, although overtime work is currently already something teachers do voluntarily," Kikkas explained.

"We always need to agree, when a teacher or any staff member works overtime – we need to reach an agreement with them on how much and how we will compensate [them] for it," he continued. "But it's very difficult to precisely measure a teacher's work like that in order to determine what counted as overtime and what didn't."

According to EHL chief Reemo Voltri, increasing working hours would also require an increase in teachers' wages to at least 140 percent of Estonia's average monthly salary. The current goal, meanwhile, is 120 percent of the average.

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