Rearrangement of student learning time, next to reduction of class size and increase of teachers’ salaries, has emerged as one of the key ideas for reallocation of newly available resources in countries with a decreasing number of students. Since it is argued that “the most valuable resource in the educational process is no doubt student learning time” (OECD, 2004: 240), optimising this resource has been presented as one of the key measures in improving student achievement (Carroll, 1989, Scheerens and Bosker, 1997, Marzano, 2003). While students acquire skills and knowledge in many different ways, this paper will concentrate primarily on the time students spend learning in regular school lessons and also consider their participation in summer and after-school programmes and extracurricular activities.