“Club activities so-called ‘bukatsu’ in Japanese junior high school”

NTA member in Japan
Social Studies teacher in Junior High School

According to “White Paper on Young Teachers’ Life” complied by Youth Group of the Teachers’ Association of Aichi-prefecture, the results of the teachers’ opinion poll regarding “instructing students” were reported as follows;
1.    What problems do you have regarding teaching?
- “I cannot pay enough attention to my students”…76.3%
（There are about 40 students in a class. Teachers have to teach 20~21 classes in a week and do a lot of school affairs and duties.）
- “I find it difficult dealing with student’s immoral behavior in appropriate way” …54.7%

As for club activities which is a characteristic of Japanese educational system,
2.  Do you often feel its burden when you instruct your students in the activity?
- “Yes”…87.5%

3. If you do, then, what is your problem?
- for elementary school teachers:
 “Since I have no actual background with regard to the activity I engage now,
I am not able to give students efficient instruction”…63.9%
- for junior high school teachers:
 “Since I have to spend weekend for the activities, I cannot get rid of my distress”…52.6%

As you know by now, we have club activities after school in Japan. It is called “bukatsu” which includes sports and some cultural activities. This “extracurricular activities” is a part of school education in Japan; therefore, teachers are responsible for not only teaching subject requirement but also guiding students in clubs. We can rely on lecturers from outside schools in guiding these activities if we wish, but there are usually financial problems. In parallel with that, teachers have to work on other school business, too. In other words, teachers spending their time on both Saturday and Sunday for these club activities are working overtime; their works are absolutely in service range not been paid.
It is no doubt that it is necessary for students to learn the communal life through these activities because they are allowed to communicate with many other students regardless of their grade level as well as class level. This experience must be something very exciting for students. In fact, there are some students who come to school because of the club activities he or she belongs to. Furthermore, these activities are much more worthwhile than just spending their time sitting for hours in front of TV or video games, etc. At the same time, I really think there must be some other ways to manage the club activities humanly especially for the young teachers who are often obliged to face its burden.
Bukatsu

　愛知県教員組合青年部作成の「青年教師の生活白書」によると，次のような現状がある。�指導上悩んだり，困ったりすることは？
「ゆっくり時間をかけて子どもに対応することができない」76.3％
「問題行動などに対する適切な指導が難しい」54.7％
また，日本の学校教育における特徴的な部活動に関しては，
�指導を負担に感じることがあるか？
「ある」87.5％であった。
�負担を感じていることは何か？
小学校では「経験したことのない部活動のため，効果的な技術指導ができないこと」63.9％
中学校では「休日活動を多く設定せざるを得ず，疲労が蓄積する」52.6％

日本の学校教育の中には「部活動」と呼ばれる授業外のスポーツ指導，あるいは文化指導がある。これは，「課外活動」ではあるが，学校教育の一貫で，教員が教科指導に加えて指導にあたる。外部講師の要請もできるが，学校経費上少ないのが現状である。また，それと並行して各種学校業務も行わなければならない。土日の練習も含めるとそのほとんどが勤務時間を越えてのサービス勤務ということになる。
もちろん，生徒たちにとって，この課外活動は学年や学級を越えた集団生活を学び，また普段の授業とは違って興味深い活動となることは確かである。部活動が楽しみで来る生徒も多い。また，家に帰ってテレビの前に何時間も居座るよりも，パソコンやテレビゲームに没頭するよりもずっと意味があることは確かだ。しかし，一部の教員の負担を考えると，より良い運営方法があるのではないかとも思う。