PRINCIPAL WHO ASKED FOR REWRITING OF WORK RECORDS TEACHER IN THE MIDDLE

 Graduation ceremony plan is "ver.10" Public junior high school teacher; overtime is 100 hours per month

It was a Saturday afternoon in February when the "sixth wave" of the new coronavirus epidemic had passed its peak. In the staff room of a public junior high school in a port town in the Hokuriku region, Hisako Yoshimura (pseudonym), a teacher in her 50s, was working on her computer. A document file with the title "Graduation Ceremony Guidelines Ver. 10" was projected on the screen.

This graduation program has been revised many times since it began in mid-January. Should all parents be invited to the gymnasium, should current students be allowed to attend, and what should be done if an attendee is found to be infected? It is not possible to read the infection trend up to the day of the ceremony in March. We had to prepare multiple proposals assuming various cases.

"My parents can attend the school next door, but not my school--". In order to prevent such complaints from parents, it was necessary to consult with neighboring junior high schools and to coordinate the response.

AN EMPTY CLASSROOM

You can sit in your seat after 6 p.m.

Months when overtime exceeds 100 hours are unusual. On weekdays, even when there are no classes in the subject in charge, they are busy grading tests and preparing paperwork, and during the lunch break, they may be crushed by the choir instruction performed at events. Even after 4:30 p.m., there is guidance on club activities, and students can only take their seats in the staff room after 6 a.m. when they leave school.

I want to leave work at 8 p.m. because my mother, who needs nursing care, is at home. He has little free time due to the housework he has accumulated at home, and he has no choice but to stick to the staff room on the afternoon of a holiday after finishing club activity guidance.

At the graduation ceremony the previous year, only one representative of current students was allowed to participate in order to prevent the spread of infection. "I want it to be closer to my usual graduation ceremony." When you think of children, you can't cut corners.

A CLASSROOM DURING COVID-19

If you tell the school, you can get by

According to a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in fiscal 2016, about 30% of elementary school teachers and 60% of junior high school teachers in public schools worked overtime equivalent to 80 hours or more per month, which is the "overwork death line."

The number of hours worked per week was about four hours more in elementary schools and five hours in junior high schools than 10 years ago. In FY20, the new Course of Study was fully implemented, and the number of classes has further increased, mainly in the third and fourth grades of elementary school, where foreign language activities have been added. In junior high school, the burden of teaching club activities on holidays is large. The shortage of teachers has also become normal.

Schools in various regions are looking for "work style reform," but Yoshimura says, "The more jobs we have, the more jobs we have, and I don't really feel the reform." Some clerical work, such as sending out works submitted to painting and poster competitions, was replaced by clerks called "school support staff" assigned by the Board of Education. Staff meetings were shortened and school events were simplified.

On the other hand, new jobs are being created one after another. With the introduction of new "XX education," such as the government's "GIGA School Concept," which deploys one digital terminal per child, and sovereign education when the voting age is lowered to 18 years old, it is necessary to participate in lesson studies and training. As part of municipal cultural projects, there are times when people are required to hold "bring-in events" such as holding lectures and appreciating traditional performing arts, but teachers are responsible for making plans.

Mr. Yoshimura said, "If you tell the school, they will do something about it, so they will feel free to ask for it, but they don't have the manpower or time to devote it, so they are forcing themselves to cram it."

AN EMPTY CLASSROOM IN JAPAN DURING THE SIXTH WAVE OF PANDEMIC