Why is the teacher so busy?~ What you can see when you look at the busy breakdowns- (Masatoshi Senoo) --Apers -Yahoo! News

"Why are the teachers so busy?"

The other day, I was asked by a TV station. I get a lot of interviews like this, but it's very difficult to give a straight answer. The world isn't that simple. It has become well known that many teachers work beyond the death line from overwork, and in fact, even die from overwork or commit suicide from overwork. The other day, it seems that it was featured in a certain TV program (related article at the link below).

○ ``Teachers' overtime pay is 4% uniformly'' The reason why jobs continue to increase and salaries do not change

○ 5,000 teachers a year take leave of absence due to mental illness. "Working style" that cannot be reformed behind it

　Introduced in this program article, the issue of the Payment Special Law is also important, but if only this is treated as the bad guy, the facts will be misunderstood.

　The doctor looks at the patient's symptoms and searches for the cause of the illness. If you don't grasp the root cause of school problems, you'll be in trouble if you put a knife in a strange place. Here, I would like to explain by introducing two types of data for reference.

*This article is an excerpt from my book "If you do this, the school will change! Challenge to 'busy is natural'", with some additions and corrections. Please refer there for more details.

One is Toshiyuki Kanbayashi, who analyzed 14 working hours surveys of public elementary and junior high school teachers conducted by the national government, prefectures, and teachers' unions in the 1950s and 1960s and the latter half of the 2000s (2006-2012). The result of his research is "Work Burden of Public Elementary and Junior High School Teachers." The Payroll Special Law, which did not pay overtime pay for public school teachers, was enacted in 1971, so it is a good reference to compare the historical background on which it was based and the actual situation about 10 years ago today.

There, the weekly working hours are classified into four. (1) Educational activity time, (2) Class preparation and grade processing time, (3) General affairs time (paperwork, meetings, training, division of school duties, etc.), (4) External response time (parents, local communities, contractors, etc.) response, etc.). The main points revealed by the statistical analysis are as follows.

●As is generally recognized, the working hours of elementary and junior high school teachers (total of (1) to (4)) are longer in the latter half of the 2000s than in the 1950s and 1960s.

●(1) Both elementary and junior high school spent more time on educational activities after the latter half of the 2000s. (1) includes time on the regular curriculum (including special activities and morals) and extracurricular activities. Extracurricular activities here include after-school supplementary lessons, extracurricular activity guidance, lunch, cleaning guidance, educational counseling, career counseling, and the like.

●(2) There is no significant difference between elementary school teachers in the 1950s and 1960s and those after the late 2000s in terms of class preparation and grade processing time. For junior high school teachers, it is shorter after the latter half of the 2000s.

●(3) There is no significant difference between elementary school teachers in the 1950s and 1960s and those after the latter half of the 2000s in terms of hours spent on general affairs. Among junior high school teachers, the latter half of the 2000s is shorter.

●(4) There is no significant difference between the above periods for both elementary and junior high school regarding the time required to deal with external situations.

It is difficult to say that the burden of clerical work and dealing with parents is the root cause of busyness

　Kambayashi's research may differ slightly from the general perception, but Teachers can't be said to be busy with clerical work and dealing with parents. In fact, in junior high school, the amount of time spent on general affairs has decreased.

However, there are limits to this research. It is just the result that there is such a tendency on average. Depending on the time of the survey and the circumstances of the school and teachers, there are times when the administrative work is quite busy, and there are times when the child is detained for a long time due to troubles with parents.

　Therefore, it should not be said that there is no problem with the administrative burden and the response to parents. That said, I think it's important to keep in mind that, as a trend, a major factor behind the increase in busyness is time constraints for extracurricular activities (other than club activities, school lunches, cleaning, and classes such as student guidance).

The root cause of the busyness that is evident in the most recent data

　The other is the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's "Survey on the Working Conditions of Teachers" (conducted in 2016). This is a large number of subjects (nearly 10,000 elementary and junior high school teachers cooperated), and it is valuable data that records details of work in 30-minute increments. In the chart below, we show the daily average of elementary and junior high school teachers who work above the karoshi line (average figure of those who work 60 hours or more per week), and the average figure of those who do not (average figure of those who work less than 60 hours per week). ) are compared. First, data on junior high school teachers.

　Yellow coloring is the one that occupies a certain weight in a day, and there is a comparative difference between those who have crossed the karoshi line and those who have not. .

Class preparation, grade processing (including grading, confirmation and correction of submissions, etc., in addition to work such as report cards), school events, club activities, etc. fall under this category. The analysis in this table is for weekdays, but club activities are heavier on weekends. Teachers who cross the karoshi line are doing these tasks more carefully or longer.

In addition, although there is not much difference between 60 hours or more per week, it is common for all teachers to have tasks that take a lot of time in a day, such as school lunches, cleaning, and watching over lunch breaks. and morning work (morning meetings, reading activities, etc.), meetings, etc.. This is marked in blue. We are spending a lot of time on these things, so we have to think about them.

　The previous chart is about junior high school, but the above trend is almost the same for elementary school (next chart). Since many elementary schools do not have extracurricular activities (although some schools and regions do), the influence of extracurricular activities is hardly seen. However, as many elementary school teachers can feel, it takes a lot of time to mark grades, prepare for classes, and participate in events such as sports festivals. This is also confirmed by the data.

　Mr. Kanbayashi's research mentioned above does not include the data for 2016, but even if you check the data for 2016, clerical work and relationships with parents do not have a large weight. No, there is no big difference whether it is a person on the karoshi line or not. Again, it is necessary to keep in mind that this is an average data, but what keeps teachers busy is not the enormous amount of clerical work and complaints, but the preparation of lessons, school lunches, That's because he's working hard with the kids in cleaning, school events, and extracurricular activities, says Data.

　I conduct training and give lectures on school work style reforms all over the country, but what I always talk about is that while referring to this kind of data, "Look at the breakdown of how busy you are" b>. For example, if you say, "It's been a bit difficult to make ends meet these days," it's necessary to see what your expenses are big (such as high rent and eating out expenses), but it's the same reasoning, and it's a matter of course.

　The above is the average data collected nationwide, but each school and teacher themselves, even for a day or a week, took a look at the breakdown of their busy schedules and factors, and looked back. would be the material.

　In addition, if we do not aim for measures that are in line with the true cause of policies and future work style reform movements at each school, we will be in the wrong place. Specifically, I would like to explore what to do with the areas marked in yellow and blue earlier.

　The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the board of education have been calling for teachers to secure "time to face their children" by improving the busyness of schools. However, in reality, as a result of having "faced with children" in extracurricular activities, grading/correction, class preparation, student guidance, etc., they are busy and it is becoming difficult to eliminate long working hours. b>. The starting point for school work style reform should be to calmly reconfirm this fact, not only for teachers, but also for parents and local communities.

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