Taught time at school - new Eurydice report

The Eurydice data collection on taught time targets the recommended compulsory curriculum by
grades/stages for full time compulsory education. The intended curriculum, its goals, structure,
subjects and the notional workload for students can be based on regulations or standards defined by
central (or top-level) education authorities or may be established as a set of recommendations at regional
level. In some countries steering documents only include information of main goals of the national
framework curriculum and delegate the taught time allocation to regional/local authorities or to the
discretion of individual schools. In the present data collection, all these sources of information are used to
complement the time allocation between subjects and/or educational stages.

The recommended compulsory curriculum can be composed by a compulsory core curriculum and a
compulsory flexible curriculum. The compulsory core curriculum normally includes the subjects or
study domains that must be studied by all students. At certain levels of study students can make choices
between a group of subjects and in these cases the corresponding taught time is indicated as Core
curriculum options. On the other hand, the compulsory flexible curriculum is the part of the curriculum
that can be devoted to various subjects selected by the school or the student but still included in the total
compulsory time for student instruction. In all these cases a country specific note alerts the reader about
the precise subject allocation.


The scope of the taught time data collection is the compulsory full time primary and secondary
general education as defined in the national education systems.


The compulsory taught time includes the time spent by a student in receiving instruction on all the
subjects integrated in the compulsory core or compulsory flexible curriculum in the school premises or in
out-of school activities which are formal part of the programme. The instruction time excludes:
 Breaks between lessons or other types of interruptions.
 Time dedicated to optional lessons.
 Non-compulsory time outside the school day.
 Time dedicated to homework activities.
 Individual tutoring or private study.

Read the full report here