Australian primary and high school students spend nearly 74 per cent more time in the classroom as Finnish students and have the most hours of instruction in the OECD, but are receiving far lower scores in international tests than students in similar countries.

An Australian student receives a total of 11,000 hours of instruction throughout primary and high school, compared to the average of 7540 hours for Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, curriculum comparisons released by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority have revealed.

ACARA's curriculum comparisons have identified major differences in the amount of autonomy given to teachers in other education systems. Credit:Louise Kennerley

Finnish students, who perform among the top in the Program for International Student Assessment, have at least 200 fewer teaching hours every year in comparison to Australian students, and about 100 hours less each year than the OECD average.

Finnish children also start school later, entering the first year of primary school at age seven, and pre-primary education for children aged six has been compulsory in Finland since mid-2015.