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Urgent proposal to tackle teacher shortages, long working hours

TOKYO - A panel of experts has made an urgent proposal for concrete measures towards workstyle reform in schools to address issues such as long working hours for teachers in Japan.

The special subcommittee of the Central Council for Education has compiled an urgent proposal regarding workstyle reform for educators suffering from chronic long working hours, and submitted it to Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Fumio Nagao.

Specific measures include advancing the delegation of responsibilities to non-teaching staff for extracurricular activity guidance and supervising students during their commutes, as well as simplifying preparations and operations for school events.

The proposal also mentions bringing forward the implementation of subject-specific teachers in upper grades of elementary schools and suggests measures like providing support to schools by education boards in response to excessive complaints from parents."

Source: ANNnewsCH

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