Editorial

16:10 JST, January 31, 2025

Even if teachers’ salaries are raised, the shortage of people willing to become teachers will not be resolved as long as the long working hours remain the same. Educational settings must be turned into attractive workplaces through such means as reducing and simplifying teachers’ workloads.

Teachers’ salaries at public elementary, junior high and high schools will be raised starting next school year. In lieu of overtime, teachers are paid a teaching adjustment allowance that up to now has been uniformly set at 4% of a base salary. There is a plan to raise this allowance in stages to 10% by the 2030 school year.

The teaching adjustment allowance was set at 4% by a law that came into effect in 1972. This percentage was based on teachers’ overtime hours, which were about eight hours per month at the time.

Currently, however, 77% of junior high........

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