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CHAPTER SUFFICIENCY OF TEACHING STAFFAND PROVISION OF SCHOOL FACILITIES

Normal service hours of teachers per week in local public elementary. Lower secondary and upper secondary schools are provided by prefecture ordinances. They are generally 44 hours per week, though with slight differences in the number of hours by prefecture.

With regard to the composition of average teaching loads in a week, the survey on teaching loads in local public schools conducted in l966 shows that the hours that teachers paid to "direct teaching and guidance activities" such as class-room instruction, supplementary lessons and extra-curricular activities including guidance and coaching for various club activities account for 47% of their total work hours in elementary schools, 43% in lower secondary schools, and 32% in upper secondary schools, respectively, and that "indirect teaching and guidance activities" such as the formation of teaching plans, preparation of teaching materials, formation of examination question papers, preparation for supplementary lessons, meeting with pupils' parents, making contacts with pupils' homes, etc., account for 19%, 21%and 27%, of their time respectively. Teachers' study hours account for around l 2%(6 hours) of the total teaching load at each school level. The percent of hours devoted to "clerical work" is around 7% of the total. This consists of time for classroom management, school affairs, classroom accountant's business, etc. Hours for "clerical work" plus those for "auxiliary activities" such as other service activities in school and in the PTA add up to about 1 0% of the total teaching loads of teachers at each school level.

Figure 34. Composition of Teaching Loads of Local Public School Teachers by Type of Service

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Note: Actual numbers are given in Basic Table 51. Basic Table 51