Bar chart on average time (hours) a teacher spent in teaching in three different school types in 4 countries in 2001.

The chart illustrates data about how much time was spent by teachers working primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools in four countries in 2001. Overall, upper secondary teachers worked longer hours than their counterparts in primary and lower secondary schools in all countries in question. Furthermore, American teachers committed far more time to their work than their colleagues in other countries. What stands out from the chart is the dominant duration that USA teachers spent on teaching upper secondary students, at around 1200 hours, roughly 300 hours higher than that in Iceland and Spain, at nearly 900 hours. Notably, in Japan, only 700 hours were allocated to teaching higher secondary students. Another striking feature is that lower secondary students in the USA received 1000 hours of lectures in 2001, while in Spain, teachers only taught for around 750 hours. Next came Japan, teaching duration by a lower secondary teacher was approximately 650 hours, higher than 600 hours in Iceland. It should be noted that primary schools were distributed the least hours in teaching children. In the USA, teachers in primary schools only work for more than 700 hours in 2001. Moreover, that time in Spain, Japan, and Iceland is much smaller, at 650, 600, and 580 hours, respectively.