Article ; Online: Association between student-teacher ratio and teachers' working hours and workload stress: evidence from a nationwide survey in Japan.
BMC public health
2021 Volume 21, Issue 1, Page(s) 1635
Abstract: Background: Too long work hours of Japanese school teachers, along with an increasing number of teachers taking leave due to mental illness, are well known and recognized as a serious social problem. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by ... ...
| Abstract | Background: Too long work hours of Japanese school teachers, along with an increasing number of teachers taking leave due to mental illness, are well known and recognized as a serious social problem. In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by reducing the density in the classroom, the Japanese government has decided to reduce the upper-limit of class size in primary schools after 2021, which is expected to result in lowering the student-teacher ratio. The aim of this study was to examine the association between student-teacher ratio, teacher work hours and teacher stress. Methods: Data on student-teacher ratio, teacher work hours, and teacher stress were obtained from a large-scale international survey conducted by OECD. The number of teachers participated in the survey was 3308 (primary school) and 3555 (lower-secondary school). After excluding teachers with missing observations, the analytic sample consisted of 2761 (primary school) and 3006 (lower-secondary school) teachers. Multivariate regression analysis was performed. Results: Regression results revealed that student-teacher ratio was positively correlated with total work hours and workload stress of teachers. In particular, teachers working in schools with high student-teacher ratio spent more time on time-consuming tasks such as marking/correcting student work and communication with parents or guardians. The coefficient estimates suggested that, on average, lowering the student-teacher ratio by five in lower-secondary school was associated with 2.8 hours shorter working hours per week (p<0.001). Conclusion: Our empirical results suggested that the class-size reduction policy starting in 2021 could reduce teacher stress and long work hours through the consequent decrease in student-teacher ratios. |
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| MeSH term(s) | COVID-19 ; Humans ; Japan/epidemiology ; SARS-CoV-2 ; School Teachers ; Schools ; Students ; Workload |
| Language | English |
| Publishing date | 2021-09-07 |
| Publishing country | England |
| Document type | Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't |
| ISSN | 1471-2458 |
| ISSN (online) | 1471-2458 |
| DOI | 10.1186/s12889-021-11677-w |
| Database | MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System OnLINE |
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