Japanese Teachers Work Longest among OECD Economies

June 20, 2019

Tokyo- Japanese teachers in elementary and junior high schools work longer hours than other such teachers covered in a survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on working conditions for teachers and school environments, the OECD said Wednesday.

The Teaching and Learning International Survey, or TALIS, for 2018 also revealed that Japan lags behind other countries in fields such as active learning and education utilizing information and communications technology.

The survey covered school principals and teachers in junior high schools in all of the OECD's 48 member economies and those in elementary schools in 15 such economies.

For Japan, the survey was conducted in February and March last year and covered a total of 7,400 school principals and teachers at some 200 junior high schools and 200 elementary schools.

Japanese teachers in junior high schools work an average of 56 hours per week, compared with the OECD average of 38.3 hours. The average weekly working hours for Japanese elementary school teachers stood at 54.4. The OECD did not disclose the overall average for elementary school teachers.

According to the survey, Japanese teachers tend to spend time dealing with administrative work, planning and preparing classes, and joint work and discussions with colleagues.

The time spent on extracurricular activities in Japanese junior high schools was notably long, coming to 7.5 hours per week on average, compared with the OECD average of 1.9 hours.

According to a survey conducted by Japan's education ministry in fiscal 2016 on working conditions, some 60 pct of teachers at public junior high schools and 30 pct at public elementary schools do more than 80 hours of overtime per month.

In January, the ministry compiled guidelines setting an overtime limit of 45 hours per month and 360 hours per year.

"The reality of Japanese teachers working long hours was supported by the international survey," a ministry official said. "We're are strongly promoting work-style reform at schools," the official said.

The OECD survey also revealed that Japanese teachers were relatively reluctant to carry out activities such as dividing students into groups and having them problem-solve together.

The proportion of Japanese teachers in junior high schools utilizing ICT stood at 17.9 pct of the total, compared with the survey's average of 51.3 pct. Jiji Press