October 18, 2013
Teachers in Japan work more than 91 hours overtime a month on average, the All Japan Teachers and Staff Union (Zenkyo) on October 17 announced.
The Labor Ministry says working more than 80 hours of overtime a month may cause a work-related death.
According to a Zenkyo survey of 6,879 school teachers around the country, they worked 69 hours 32 minutes of overtime at their schools. Including the amount of time they worked at home, their average monthly overtime reached 91 hours 13 minutes in total. Those teachers who supervise school club activities work 95 hours 56 minutes overtime each month on average.
While 81.5% of respondents answered that they have enthusiasm for their work, 75.8% replied that they do not have enough time to prepare for classes and 84.6% said their workloads are too heavy.
Asked about which work tasks they want to reduce, 33.2% of respondents said they need to be freed from “paper work such as making various reports” and 11.7% replied having to “attend various meetings”.
Imatani Kenji, Zenkyo secretary general, pointed out that teachers are working excessively long hours and called for the improvement of this situation. “In order to protect the health and lives of teaching staff as well as to provide students with a good education, the workloads of teachers should be reduced and the number of teachers should be increased,” he added.
The Labor Ministry says working more than 80 hours of overtime a month may cause a work-related death.
According to a Zenkyo survey of 6,879 school teachers around the country, they worked 69 hours 32 minutes of overtime at their schools. Including the amount of time they worked at home, their average monthly overtime reached 91 hours 13 minutes in total. Those teachers who supervise school club activities work 95 hours 56 minutes overtime each month on average.
While 81.5% of respondents answered that they have enthusiasm for their work, 75.8% replied that they do not have enough time to prepare for classes and 84.6% said their workloads are too heavy.
Asked about which work tasks they want to reduce, 33.2% of respondents said they need to be freed from “paper work such as making various reports” and 11.7% replied having to “attend various meetings”.
Imatani Kenji, Zenkyo secretary general, pointed out that teachers are working excessively long hours and called for the improvement of this situation. “In order to protect the health and lives of teaching staff as well as to provide students with a good education, the workloads of teachers should be reduced and the number of teachers should be increased,” he added.
