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Home > Policy > White Paper, Notice, Announcement > White Paper > EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS IN JAPAN 1965 > CHAPTER 1 (1) b |
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SUPPLY OF TEACHERS ANDPROVISION OF SCHOOL FACILITIESIt is necessary that class size, or the number of pupils to be accommodated in one class, should be appropriate in order to ensure effective education in the schools.
Elementary schools and lower secondary schools in Japan found
it difficult to maintain an appropriate class size on account of the shortage
of classrooms and teachers and a rapid increase in school ago population for
years after World War 
. But the standard number of children in one class at
both elementary and lower secondary schools was established at 50 by the Law
for the Standard of the Class Organization and Teacher Quotas in Public Schools
of Compulsory Education in 1958 (hereinafter called the Standard Law). With this
Law enforced, planned efforts have been made to liquidate the over-sized classes
of more than 50 pupils, and now there are found scarcely any classes having more
than 50 pupils in elementary and lower secondary schools.
The standard class-size was further reduced from 50 to 45 by the revision of the said 'Standard Law' in 1964, on the basis of which a 5-year plan has been worked out to cut down the standard number by one pupil each year starting with 49 in 1964, 48 in 1965 and so on. The actual class-size in Japan is expected to come much nearer to an ideal state.
As for the standard class-size in main other countries, 40 in elementary schools and 30-35 in secondary schools seem to be almost universal.
Compared with the distribution of the class number by its class-size in the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany, in Japan not a few classes have more than 40, while the percentage of classes with more than 40 is low in these countries. Classes With more than 40 are regarded as oversized, and efforts are made for their liquidation.
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