TOKYO, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- More than 60 percent of primary school teachers in Japan find teaching English is a burden, a survey by a publishing company indicates.
The survey by the Benesse Corp. queried head teachers at 8,000 public primary schools in Japan about the views of their fifth and sixth grade homeroom teachers, Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun reported Wednesday.
It was conducted in July and August of 2010.
Approximately 4,700 teachers gave valid responses to the question about teaching English, the correspondence and publishing company said.
Of those respondents, 62.1 percent felt teaching English was a burden while 72.9 percent said it would be better to have teachers who specialize in English instruct their students.
The most common complaint from homeroom teachers was lack of time to prepare materials for teaching English and not enough time to discuss class preparations with assistant language teachers.
