5 practical skills.<sup>11</sup> In secondary education, the trends are similar. At the global level, instructional time is devoted to languages (30%), math, science, and computer technology (about 30%), and social sciences (about 13%). The remaining time is devoted to arts, physical education, vocational skills, and religious/moral education. In addition to academic subjects, middle-income countries and private schools may occupy students during lunch and offer extracurricular activities. For example, US elementary schools may only spend 65-70% of the day in teaching academic subjects.<sup>12</sup> (These extracurricular hours were taken not taken into account in this study.) _How much instructional time are schools expected to offer students_ ? Students ought to go to school for the amount of time necessary to master instructional objectives in each grade. Education ministries define the number of days or hours that schools should function and teach specific material (Figure 2-1). Guidelines are typically found in the weekly timetables of various countries and in policy documents regarding the length of the school year, the school day and the class period. The 2005 UNESCO EFA Global Monitoring Report recommends 850 to 1,000 hours annually (aside from breaks and lunch periods), and the Education for All Indicative Framework expects at least 850 (or about 200 days at 5 days per week).<sup>13</sup> Several East Asian countries provide more than 1,000 instructional hours of teaching (documentation provided by the UNESCO International Bureau of Education). In terms of days, the length of the school year varies. In the early grades of primary education (grades 1-4), median instructional hours tend to be higher in the education systems of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Western Europe and North America. They tend to be lower in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union and, to a less extent, in East Asia and the Pacific and the Arab States.<sup>14</sup> In Pakistan and Nepal, the primary school year lasts for 180 days, rising to 190 days in Zambia, 200 days in Bangladesh, and 220 days in India. In terms of actual rather than instructional hours, the global mean may range from 705 hours in grade 1 to about 830 hours in grade 6.<sup>15</sup>

> 11. These curricular structures have remained remarkably stable between 1920 and 1985, but the proportion of instructional time devoted to ‘modern’ subjects such as mathematics, natural sciences and foreign languages has increased and the teaching of history, geography and civics as separate subjects has been reduced in favor of the more interdisciplinary ‘social studies’ (Benavot and Amadio 2004, Benavot 2006) 12. Perie et al. 1997; Roth et al 2003

> 13. UNESCO 2005; an instructional hour lasts 40-50 minutes or sometimes less (as in Ghana, where it lasts 30 minutes).  Some data suggest 750 hours mandated each year in primary-school classrooms (Amadio 1998; UNESCO-IBE 2000). during the first 2 years of primary education countries mandate on average 710-740 hours of instructional time per year. Intended instructional time increases in each subsequent grade level and reaches approximately 900 annual hours in grade 8. This pattern translates into an average supplement of about 25 annual instruction hours per grade level, although these increases are not linear. There are significant jumps during grades 3-5, and then again between grades 6 and 7, when the transition between primary and lower secondary education typically occurs.

14. Benavot and Amadio 2004.

15.Benavot 2002