A serious shortage of schoolteachers is threatening to undermine the education system in Japan.

The education ministry’s first survey on the increasingly serious problem has shown how schools across the nation are struggling to fill openings for teachers.

The principal factor behind the nationwide teaching shortage is the shrinking number of young Japanese who want to become teachers. There are various reasons for the declining popularity of the profession.

But there is little doubt that media reports on harsh working conditions for teachers, particularly the long working hours, have discouraged many young people from pursuing a teaching career as they have drawn broad public attention to this problem.

The national and local governments and schools need to work together to make the profession more attractive for young people.

The survey found that a total of 1,591 public elementary schools, junior and senior high schools and schools for children with special needs across Japan had teaching positions unfilled as of May 1 last year. The figure represented some 5 percent of all the schools in these categories.

More specifically, there was a shortage of 474 homeroom teachers at elementary schools. These positions were filled by teaching staff members in management positions such as school principals and assistant principals.

A shortage of teachers in specific subjects forced 16 junior high schools to temporarily suspend certain classes.

These figures cover additional teaching positions set up by local governments to promote small classes and class division based on the degree of academic achievement. Even though the schools had the legally required numbers of teachers, the current situation could eventually make it impossible to maintain the quality of education and school management.

As senior teachers who were employed in large numbers have retired en masse, the ratio of young teachers has risen. As a natural consequence, the number of teachers who will take maternity leave or child care leave has increased.

To make matters worse, many teachers across age groups are on leave due to physical and mental health problems as long working hours from morning until late at night and the burden of dealing with complaining parents have taken a toll on them.

Openings have been filled mainly by the temporary hiring of job applicants who have failed to gain full-time teaching positions. This approach has become increasingly difficult to maintain in recent years, however, as the number of candidates for such temporary hiring has dwindled.

That is because the number of applicants has not grown while openings have increased, making it easier to find employment as a teacher. Many schools are dealing with the problem by hiring retired teachers on a temporary basis.

Boards of education around the nation are taking steps to increase the number of candidates for teacher employment examinations, such as removing age limits and abolishing skills tests for physical and music education.

The education ministry has set up a human resources database to register retired teachers and cram school teachers who could help with teaching needs. It is also developing online teaching materials to tap into the pool of people with a teacher’s license who work in other areas.

All these efforts, however, are not enough to solve the deep-rooted problem of teacher shortages. It is impossible to attract a sufficient number of brilliant young people to the profession unless effective steps are taken to improve working conditions for teachers including pay levels.

The government should take such steps as reducing nonessential paperwork done by teachers, reviewing school events and hiring more people in other professions for teaching by making effective use of a system to allow adults without a teacher’s license to teach classes.

It is also vital to expand cooperation with local communities through hiring members of the community as instructors for club activities and other measures.

The survey should prompt the government to step up its policy efforts to tackle the root cause of the shortage of teachers--long working hours.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 4