I received this document today. The Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education is becoming very strict about lazy and misbehaving foreign teachers. I feel I am being put in a bind because of others' irresponsibility and unprofessionalism.
About the Strict Rules of Conduct for Teachers
Regarding the strict observance of rules of conduct for teachers, although teachers have been repeatedly warned through official documents such as 31 Kyojinshoku No. 1989 “About the Strict Rules of Conduct for Teachers” dated 13 December 2019, illegal acts and misconduct by teachers including administrators continue to occur. There continue to be teachers that receive severe disciplinary action such as dismissal or suspension for acts including indecent assault, peeping photography, production of child pornography, and sexual harassment of students. Misconduct such as loss and accidental sharing of personal information, physical punishment and violent language towards students, traffic accidents, incorrect reception of commuting expenses, and incorrect accounting continue to occur. It is very regrettable that such misconduct significantly reduces the trust that citizens have in public school teachers.
Each and every teacher, as someone involved in public education, must deeply recognize their mission and responsibility, review their fundamental role as “public servants of the whole community”, and with a correct understanding of their own job duties strive their utmost to execute their duties with pride and a sense of responsibility in order to respond to the trust invested in them by students, guardians, citizens, etc. In addition, principals, vice principals, administrative office directors, and others who are in a position to supervise staff must fully recognize the gravity of their responsibility, of course strictly obey rules of conduct, and administer strict guidance to teachers in order to even more thoroughly establish compliance of conduct regulations.
Especially at the beginning of the fiscal year, with personnel transfers, division changes, and students moving up a grade, there are many administrative procedures and tasks that handle personal information. It is necessary to fully instruct and warn teachers regarding appropriate management of personal information. Also, new employees must be given guidance as soon as possible so that they are fully aware of their mission and responsibility as public servants in education.
In Tokyo last year, the discovery that contract information had been leaked by a Tokyo Metropolitan Government employee resulted in the inspection of corruption prevention measures across the entire Tokyo Metropolitan Government Office and the official document 31 Kyosouhou No. 423 “About the Vice Governor’s Directive (Enforcement of Measures to Prevent Corruption)” dated 27 November 2019 was issued. In light of the above, in order to further heighten all teachers’ consciousness and self-awareness towards the prevention of misconduct, we urge that teachers be thoroughly instructed about the topics below based on the attachment “Document for Informing and Instructing Teachers” and utilizing the document “Execute Your Mission! ~Conduct Guideline for Teachers~” that summarizes the conduct related policies that teachers should unquestionably follow, ask principals to fully inspect the status of securing of conduct regulations in their schools, and urge teachers to improve the trust that citizens have in school education.
Furthermore, with the implementation of the employee for the fiscal year system starting from the 2020 fiscal year, disciplinary action and more as stipulated by the Local Public Service Act are now applicable to teachers including hourly instructors and club activity advisors. Please take note of this.
1) About indecent acts, sexual harassment and other types of
harassment
2) About proper management of personal information
3) About proper usage of personal computers and social media
4) About physical punishment, inappropriate instruction, violent
language, etc.
5) About prevention of traffic accidents
6) About proper commuting
7) About proper management of job duties
8) About prevention of accounting accidents
9) About contact with stakeholders
10) About prevention of alcohol related misconduct
11) About compliance with superiors’ work related orders and laws
and regulations