.avif)
Why teachers have been waiting for the duty for years
A teacher's working day does not end with the last lesson. Marking, parent meetings, staff meetings and lesson preparation still have to be worked through and prepared in the evening, at the weekend or during the holidays. What is missing is solid evidence of how much is actually done after the school bell.
That is exactly what has been making teachers angry for years. The same picture keeps appearing in Reddit threads, union resolutions and studies: 50-hour weeks are not the exception but the rule. And still nobody looks at it systematically.
The legal basis has been there for years. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2019 that all EU member states must require employers to record working hours systematically. In September 2022, the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) set this out for Germany: employers are obliged to record the working hours of all employees. In principle this already follows from Section 3 of the German Occupational Safety Act (Arbeitsschutzgesetz, ArbSchG) and applies to schools too, without restrictions.
The problem: the state education ministries responsible are hesitating. Not a single federal state has so far introduced a binding recording system for teachers. The Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education (Kultusministerkonferenz) is even trying to remove teachers from the duty altogether. The Federal Ministry of Labour, however, clearly rejected that.
What is currently happening in the federal states
Bremen - pilot project from August 2026
Bremen is the first federal state to get serious. From the 2026/2027 school year, teachers at six selected schools will document their entire working time for a year using an iPad and an app. The preparation phase up to July 2026 covers the legal, organisational and technical groundwork. From 2027, the Institute for Quality Development in Bremen's Education System will evaluate the results, with the aim of developing a system that can be used permanently and anchored in a new regulation on teachers' working time and duties. Bremen's education senator Sascha Aulepp (SPD) hopes that other federal states will follow.
North Rhine-Westphalia - lifetime working time account in draft
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the state government presented a draft law in April 2026 for a lifetime working time account that also includes teachers. However, it does not yet provide for a systematic system for recording day-to-day working time. At the same time, a 2025 survey by the North Rhine-Westphalian philologists' association found that a clear majority of teachers in North Rhine-Westphalia are in favour of working time tracking.
Bavaria - pressure from the union, hesitation in politics
The GEW Bavaria teaching union passed a resolution on working time tracking for teachers in May 2025. Its demand to the Bavarian state government is unambiguous: a legally compliant and transparent recording system at all schools. So far, the Bavarian state government has not responded with any concrete step. In the background, the working time account for primary school teachers is also being reissued, after the Bavarian Higher Administrative Court declared the previous rules invalid.
What this means for all federal states
The legal position is the same across Germany: the duty applies everywhere, because it follows from federal law - not from state law. The fact that individual federal states have not yet introduced a system does not change that. Schools that wait until their federal state acts are taking a legal risk.
What teachers actually have to record
Teachers' working time is more complex than a classic 9-to-5 model. It consists of several areas, all of which count as working time that has to be recorded:
- Teaching time: the direct teaching time in the classroom
- Preparation and follow-up: the hours that go into planning, developing materials and follow-up work
- Marking: class tests, exams, written coursework
- Staff meetings and other meetings: staff and subject meetings, parent meetings, internal school coordination
- Administrative tasks: reports, documentation, pupil files
- Professional development: where it is instructed or approved by the school
The common teaching load model (Deputatsmodell), which so far assesses teachers mainly by the lessons they teach, does not reflect this total load. That is precisely the heart of the problem and the reason why unions and teachers themselves are pushing so insistently for recording.
Important for school management: the German Working Hours Act (Arbeitszeitgesetz, ArbZG) applies here too. In principle, the maximum daily working time of 10 hours must not be exceeded. In practice, exactly that happens regularly - a Monday that begins at 7:30 with class management duties and ends at 21:00 after marking and a parents' evening is far above it. Without recording, that is invisible. With recording, it becomes manageable.
Who may act, and who has to?
Before we get to specific systems, it is worth taking an honest look at the question of who actually holds decision-making power in schools.
State schools: here the respective federal state is the employer. That means: a school management cannot introduce a binding time tracking system on its own. That is a matter for the state education ministry. On top of that, introducing a recording system is subject to codetermination - the staff council has to be involved in the question of how a system is designed. Teachers at a state school who want to demand time tracking therefore have mainly two routes: via staff councils, which can table initiative motions and negotiate service agreements, or via political pressure on the state education ministries.
Schools under independent sponsorship: here the employer function lies with the sponsoring body - as with a foundation, an association, a church or a parents' initiative. These sponsoring bodies are subject to the same statutory duties as any other company: the BAG ruling, the ECJ, Section 3 ArbSchG. They can and must act - and do not need a decision by a state education ministry to do so. Codetermination rights of the works council or staff council apply here too, but they relate to the design, not to whether it happens at all.
What this means in practice: introducing a digital time tracking system is a political and staff representation matter at state schools. At schools under independent sponsorship, by contrast, it is already today an operational decision that the sponsoring body can take - and legally should.
What requirements a system has to meet
Whatever the type of school, the following applies to every recording system: according to the ECJ it must be objective, reliable and accessible. In practice, an Excel list fails on all three criteria: it is error-prone, not audit-proof and hardly practical for teachers working in a decentralised way.
What works in practice is shown by the Bremen pilot project: an app that teachers can use on their own smartphone or on a school iPad, whether in the classroom, working from home or on the move. Different activity categories (teaching, preparation, staff meeting, parent meeting) can be set up, absences are recorded at the same time and the administration has a central overview at all times.
That is exactly what clockin offers - developed for mobile use, usable offline as well, with a direct DATEV export for payroll.
For schools & educational institutions
Working time tracking that does not put extra strain on teachers
clockin meets all three ECJ requirements: objective, reliable and accessible - via the app on a smartphone or school iPad.
- Time tracking with a single click
- Record absences such as sick leave and training at the same time
- Central overview for the administration
What customers say
Conclusion: the duty is here - implementation is coming
Legally, the duty to record teachers' working hours has been clear for years.. What is missing is implementation across the board. Bremen shows that it is possible. North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria are moving, even if slowly. And the Federal Ministry of Labour has made it clear that there will be no exemptions.
For teachers this means: pressure through staff councils and unions remains the most effective lever at state schools. For sponsoring bodies of independent schools the decision is simpler, and the legal responsibility is the same as for any other employer.
The real promise behind all this, however, is a different one: it is about making visible what is actually being done. And that is overdue.
.png)
.avif)
.avif)