Photo/Illutration Students at Keiai University in Chiba city listen to a teacher explain what the job entails. (Provided by Keiai University)

Reports of long hours with no overtime pay continue to take a toll on the teaching industry with even fewer college students than last year sitting for the exam to teach at public schools.

In the current fiscal year, 38,641 students around Japan sat for the exam, a decrease of about 2,000 over the previous fiscal year.

The situation is especially dire in Oita Prefecture on the main southern island of Kyushu.

The prefectural board of education there had hoped to hire 200 new teachers for the school year beginning in April. But only 198 students took the teacher’s license exam.

The board was hardly in the position of passing everyone who took the exam as it had to ensure that those who pass are qualified to teach.

It ended up passing 159 applicants. But some of them may yet end up choosing other careers, further exacerbating the teacher shortage in Oita.

A vice principal at an Oita elementary school realized last April that the school would not have enough teachers, so a retired teacher was asked to return to the classroom.

The vice principal was fully aware of the physical and psychological strain on someone in their late 60s, but could not think of another option.

Elementary schools were short of 29 teachers as of Sept. 1, 2022, according to the Oita prefectural board of education.

Students who enter education faculties at university with the intention of becoming teachers are known to change their mind about their career choice after coming into contact with working teachers.

A 22-year-old university student in Tokyo was inspired to become a teacher since junior high school when she fretted about grades and friends and a teacher listened to her concerns and together they figured out what to do.

But after entering university, the student at the suggestion of a friend began reading social media posts apparently written by working teachers.

One post said: “After listening to my students after class, I did clerical work and prepared for the next day’s lessons. I was done at 11 p.m.”

During the summer break, she and two friends began exchanging posts they found from teachers about being responsible for students’ extracurricular activities as well as working on their days off.

That led the university student to conclude teaching was not for her. She has been offered a job at a company planning educational materials. Her two friends also chose not to become teachers.

A senior in an education faculty at a private university in Kyushu began having doubts about becoming a teacher after he learned teachers are not paid overtime. He chose to go to graduate school as the government has said it is considering changing the law to allow for overtime pay.

“It won’t be too late to decide about becoming a teacher after determining the future course of overtime pay,” he said.

(This article was written by Aya Shioiri, Hiroaki Takeda, Mayumi Ujioka, a senior staff writer, and Yukihito Takahama.)

Related News