If teachers are exhausted from administrative work and extracurricular activities, they may not be able to pay enough attention to teaching their classes — their most important task. Enabling them to concentrate on teaching is crucial.

The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry released the results of a fact-finding survey on teachers’ work for fiscal 2016. The ministry conducted the survey among about 20,000 teachers at 800 elementary and junior high schools to collect data on their work hours over a week, and compared the findings with the previous survey, conducted in fiscal 2006.

Daily work time on weekdays averaged at least 11 hours for elementary and junior high school teachers, according to the findings. The work time for teachers in both categories increased by 30 to 40 minutes compared with the previous survey, showing that teachers’ long working hours have gotten worse.

The survey also found that as many as 30 percent of elementary school teachers and 60 percent of junior high school teachers worked beyond the 80-hour monthly overtime threshold, which the state recognizes as an amount that could lead to death from overwork. The situation is serious.

Teachers do not have overtime pay and are instead provided the equivalent of 4 percent of their basic pay across the board. Many schools do not even keep records of teachers’ work hours.

In the midst of work-style reforms being promoted by the government and companies, awareness of this trend among schools is lagging. Local education boards should take action.

Under current teaching guidelines, which aim at “a departure from pressure-free education,” lesson content and the number of classes have increased. For younger teachers, whose number has sharply increased following a massive mandatory retirement of veteran teachers, it takes time to prepare for classes. Carefully thought-out responses are required for children who have developmental disabilities or are burdened with difficult family circumstances.

Easing burden is key

Should the new teaching guidelines be implemented starting in fiscal 2020, English education will start earlier — from third grade — with class hours to be further increased. It is essential to boost support tied to actual school education by positioning teachers at schools who specialize in English and science.

At junior high schools, teachers bear a significant burden related to students’ extracurricular activities. The average time teachers spent on such activities on Saturday and Sunday came to more than two hours, or double the previous survey.

For the sake of raising wholesome and healthy students, days of rest should be established, as the education ministry has urged in a notice. Promoting “extracurricular activity instructors,” a system established this fiscal year to take advantage of human capital in local communities, will help teachers.

The practice of teachers taking on odd jobs like placing orders and collecting money for teaching materials should be reviewed. By utilizing clerical staff and information technology, teachers’ work should be further streamlined.

The fact that vice principals’ daily work time averaged at least 12 hours on weekdays should not be overlooked, either. They are in charge of dealing with students’ parents and cooperating with local communities, and are pressed to handle surveys for the education ministry and boards of education and compiling reports to them. It is vital to give them only surveys and other tasks that are essential.

If teachers are fully occupied and cannot afford to deal with children properly, it is doubtful they can exercise their ingenuity in teaching. The latest findings should provide an opportunity to reorganize school operations and to correct the long working hours there.