School Coping with Covid-19 Pandemic: Initial Analyses of Nationwide Surveys Targeting Elementary and Lower Secondary Schools in Japan

ABSTRACT

This article explores impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on elementary and junior high schools in Japan through preliminary analyses of nation-wide surveys conducted under the commission of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). After explaining the outline of the research project, this paper elucidates outcomes of preliminary analyses of the first wave of the school survey. The analyses reveal that over the school closure period in 2020, schools identified communication difficulties between teachers and students and their parents as well as those between students in each school. Although those communication problems were substantially mitigated in most schools after the end of school closure, the increasing workload of teachers has been realized as a serious problem since the reopening of schools to date. Whereas the similar patterns in problem recognition were observed, those communication problems are more seriously recognized in the three major metropolitan areas than in the other regions, despite that the same problems occurred in any regions to some extent. The paper concludes that results of the comprehensive research are highly expected to provide meaningful empirical evidence for policy making for the central and local governments to support schools and students under the pandemic. © 2021 Japanese Association for Mathematical Sociology. All rights reserved.