Australian secondary school teachers work among the longest hours in their profession in the developed world and spend more time on administration and non-teaching tasks.

The working week for Australian secondary school teachers is also getting longer, a survey for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has found.

The OECD’s Teaching and Learning International Survey, which reviewed teachers in 30 nations, found Australian secondary school teachers work an average of 44.8 hours a week, six hours longer than the international average of 38.8 hours a week.

Australian teachers are working longer hours and spend more time on administration that teachers in other OECD countries.

Five other surveyed nations had a longer average working week than Australia last year, with Japanese teachers the worst, working an average of 56 hours a week. At the bottom end of the scale, Italian teachers worked a 30-hour week on average.