The education ministry, in an annual report released Tuesday, expressed a sense of crisis over the long working hours of teachers in Japan.
In the education, science and technology white paper for fiscal 2022, which ended in March this year, the ministry stressed that reducing work hours is an urgent task.
Motivated and capable individuals should not be discouraged from becoming teachers due to poor working conditions, the white paper also said.
While recognizing certain progress in work-style reform for teachers, the paper noted that there are still many teachers working long hours, pointing to preliminary data of a fiscal 2022 survey on teachers' actual working situations which showed that the average monthly overtime at school per teacher came to about 41 hours for elementary school teachers and about 58 hours for junior high school teachers.
In the white paper, the ministry also clarified its stance to promote the “giga school” initiative of making an information device available to every student in elementary and junior high schools across the country.
Smartphones, tablets, personal computers and other information and communication technology terminals are must-have items for children, just like pencils and notebooks, the white paper said.