It's been a year since I wrote a piece about how schools in Japan have been dealing with COVID19, and I want to do a bit of an update of how it's like working as an ALT in Japan during these times. My situation may be vastly different from other schools, as I work in private school and not the public school system - so I just want people who are new (incoming JETs, dispatch, etc) to keep that in mind.
School Closures? Online Classes?
As of writing this, my school has been very adamant about NOT CLOSING. We have not done online classes since January, when we closed the school for one day due to Junior High School entrance exams.
A lot of people don't seem to like teaching online classes, even those who are tech savvy. With my school in particular - we definitely have the tech, but a lot of the older teachers are really rejecting the online classes. But I don't think we're the only school who are doing pushbacks of doing classes online. I definitely don't think my school's teachers are singular on their thoughts of online classes. The students also don't love it, other than the fact that they can stay home... and in turn, the parents aren't all too keen about online classes either.
So all in all, schools in Japan are trying to stay open.
Classes & School Times
Whenever there is a state of emergency issues, schools have not closed since last year April. Mine certainly doesn't close anymore.
We have however, been starting school later.
It seems like a few other schools in my area also implemented a late start or early finish of classes. This makes sense so students in the area can sort of trickle home slowly. I'm not sure if other schools outside our area have been doing this.
Due to the shortening times, classes are now 40 minutes instead of 50 minutes. Lunch time is still allotted the same amount of time, and there is also always 10 minutes in between classes for toilet breaks and moving to a different classroom (if need be).
Club Activities & Events
Club activities and any after school events are suspended until the end of the state of emergency.
The only exception we've made for clubs are those who may have a competition or a match coming up. For those clubs, they are allowed to stay after school one week before their big match to practice.
We did have a big event recently, but we kept it within the school. Previously, we allowed guests and students' friends to come to this event. But this year was students only for one day, and parents of students involved in the event only. This was a step up as the event was cancelled last year.
Safety at the School
All students, teachers and visitors are required to wear a mask at all times. During lunch times, students are only either allowed to eat in their classrooms (some classes have up to 45 students, some have less) or our school cafeteria. Certain areas of the school are banned to avoid crowding and clusters.
(you can decide if that's a good idea or not)
Announcements are made during break times to remind students to keep windows open for air circulation. I've personally made signs all across my homeroom class to remind my students to wash their hands, but recently, the school provided each class with their own bottle of sanitizer. We've previously had them on every floor and in many corners of the school, and entrances. We also have a temperature check machine at every entranceway of the school - but we don't enforce this.
I'm not sure if public schools are lucky enough to have this much hand sanitizer lying around the school - so maybe we're a bit more lucky to that end?
Teachers are encouraged (not required) to sanitize the classroom and desks after each day.
Students are also asked to check their temperature at home and record their temperature before leaving home every day. They are to submit this paper at the end of the week. If they have an irregular temperature that day or any symptoms, they are to call the school and encouraged to stay at home.
Teachers on the other hand are not required or asked to check their temperature. But we are encouraged to use our paid holiday if we don't feel well. Business trips and stuff are still normal as usual - these have not been forced to cancel in any way, though I have noticed less happening.
A lot of my school's FULL TIME JAPANESE teachers travel to work by car to avoid crowding in trains...... but this year, they have banned PART TIME and FOREIGN teachers (like myself) from traveling to work by car. Their excuse is that they need the parking spaces for visitors and guests.... I don't know if there's any pushback from the part time teachers about this, but I know that a few of them were quite pissed off about this. Since my school wasn't the only work they had, they needed their car to travel to other places of work - often times not within the area. There's no other parking lots within the area of the school that teachers could park for a long time, legally. Not even paid lots. So these teachers had to somehow make last minute accommodations...
Personally, I think this is absolutely unfair. Especially if the part time teacher had been working there and driving in the past.
Final Thoughts?
All in all, I think most ALTs can agree with me that there's no special treatment made for anyone. If you're a teacher, and you're sick - use your paid holidays. If you're immunocompromised? Well... school says too bad. Suck it up.
Make the accommodations yourself because the schools definitely aren't doing it for you... and good luck getting those accommodations you make yourself approved by your place of work.
If you're a new or incoming ALT, definitely keep this in mind.
The Olympics is coming up... and a lot of people predict that there will be new variant spreads at the rate COVID cases are going and lack of vaccines being distributed in time. If you are vaccinated, then great! But definitely keep yourself up to date about whether your vaccine is effective against new variants.
That's all for today. Stay safe, everyone!