Public debate often frames teachers as professionals blessed with generous holidays and short workdays. Yet anyone who has stepped into a classroom, or lived with a teacher, knows how far this caricature is from reality. Behind every lesson lies hours of preparation, adaptation, communication, and administrative work. Roughly half of teachers’ working time remains invisible, uncounted, and therefore unrewarded. And that invisibility is not accidental: it is the product of a persistent misconception of what teaching truly is.
Teaching is not merely “delivering” content, nor are teachers simple providers of an educational service. They are highly trained professionals engaged in a complex craft: designing pedagogical approaches that respond to the needs of every student. That requires time to get to know their students, plan interventions, create materials, coordinate with colleagues, and maintain relationships with families. It requires space for reflection, emotional labour, and professional judgment. And yet much of this investment remains unrecognised, treated as optional, taken for granted, or quietly absorbed into personal evenings and weekends.
On top of that, teachers increasingly face layers of internal bureaucracy and ancillary tasks: data reporting, administrative tracking, meetings, compliance with shifting directives, and countless duties that expand with every reform. These obligations eat into time that should be devoted to students. But because society clings to the myth that teachers work fewer hours than other professionals, the immense scope of this hidden labour is rarely acknowledged.
This misunderstanding has consequences. Devaluing the teaching profession is not neutral; it is politically charged. When teachers are reduced to service providers – serving labour market needs, ideological goals, or the discourses of convenience – we weaken the democratic purpose of education. A society that treats teachers as instruments for short-term political or economic agendas, often amplified by extremist or far‑right narratives, risks undermining social cohesion itself. Education is not an assembly line. It is the foundation of an informed and critical citizenship.
For years, public investment in education across Europe has stagnated or declined. The result? Schools forced to “do more with less”, teachers stretched to keep the system afloat, and learning environments that struggle to meet the expectations placed upon them. But the future is no longer an abstract horizon, its warning signs are already here: shortages of qualified teachers, rising inequalities, and education systems struggling to keep their promises.
We do not need an education system that chases every new business fashionable slogan or short-lived political directive. We need one that is adequately funded, trusted, and valued. One where teachers’ autonomy is protected so they can do what they are trained to do: educate new generations with skill, care, and creativity. Recognising teachers’ working time is not just about fairness, it is about affirming the unique and irreplaceable role they play in society.
A society that fails to cherish education and knowledge is a society that has lost its guiding star. Trust the teachers. They are the ones shaping the future, one student at a time. And if we want that future to be brighter, recognising the full scope of their work is the very least we can do.
