I couldn’t find some specific details about teaching in Japan, I hope it is okay to ask here:
1. How a teacher on leave is replaced? (sick, 2 weeks leave, high school) By a substitute teacher I guess, but…
2. Are they from a pool of substitute teachers?
3. What do they do when they are not working as substitute?
4. Do they also do private teaching at students’ places? Is it allowed?
5. Do they work as cram school teacher in the evening too?
6. What subject has the most hours in 1st year high school?
7. In high school, are there teachers who teach several subjects? Which?
Other details welcomed: income for substitute teacher compared to tenured teacher.
Also: do they have a ‘homeroom’ teacher too in high school, Japan?
If this post isn’t welcomed, please: do you know where I could find those answers?
3 comments
Aside from international schools, my understanding is that most Japanese schools don’t have subs. Other teachers just step in to cover for them. If you want to sub for international schools, they have info on their websites.
I will try to answer those that I can:
1) I’ve never seen or heard of substitute teachers being brought in to cover a single sick day. At schools I’ve worked at the students usually just have a self-study period, proctored by any teacher with a free period.
So I don’t think 2,3 are relevant since the substitute pool system doesn’t exist (AFAIK).
Teachers do visit students homes but usually it is because of some issue at school (failure to show up, has broken some school rule, etc.) Never heard of a private lesson at home. Most students who need extra help get it at school or go to a cram school.
5) this probably happens but wouldn’t be done on the regular. Most contracts don’t allow moonlighting and most teachers are incredibly busy so wouldn’t have time/energy I’d imagine so it would be a pretty desperate gambit.
6) At my school it depends on the course they take but for the higher-level students English is the subject with the most hours, followed by math and science.
7) generally teachers only teach their subject. They will often be assigned to oversee a club activity which may be unrelated to their subject. Also, there are often part time teachers who come in to teach special subjects (like calligraphy, or a special module on robotics, or even ALTs to teach spoken English who often rotate around schools).
1: If short leave, no substitute or another teacher takes over. If it’s a long absence, for instance due to illness (we’re talking about months on an end here), they will often try to hire a part-time teacher (usually a former teacher who is already retired) to teach the classes (no other duties beyond that). This is for junior high schools.
2: No.
3: Usually just retired, enjoying life.
4: No. Teachers are civil servants, in most cases they aren’t allowed a second job, mostly to avoid conflicts of interest (which private teaching would DEFINITELY be). Home visits would usually be for disciplinary reasons, but never for teaching purposes.
5: No, see point 4.
6: Unsure, but usually Japanese, Math and English are up there.
7: At the junior high school level: usually teachers only teach one subject, the workload is already heavy enough as it is. I have seen a teacher who taught two subjects (I think math and science), but that was in a school which was about to shut down and which only had 5 this grade students left. In a regular-sized school, the answer is definitely no, though.