In Japanese publicly funded schools, teachers change schools every 3-5 years. You are supposed to change at least every 5 years, although some teachers are all

In Japanese publicly funded schools, teachers change schools every 3-5 years. You are supposed to change at least every 5 years, although some teachers are allowed to stay at the same school for a long time in special circumstances. I taught at the local high school 10 years ago and today, apart from 2 teachers who have been there for 30 years, I don't know any of the teachers. Even the principal, vice principal and even the office staff change schools. As a student you normally you have a "home room teacher", who is responsible for you. As much as possible, that home room teacher does not change for the duration of your school time (at least in junior high school and high school. I'm not sure about elementary school). So you start in your home room in grade 10 and you have the same home room and home room teacher until grade 12. Occasionally they have to split up some classes if there are problems. Occasionally they have to replace a home room teacher (in case one gets pregnant, etc). But as much as possible they try to avoid it. This provides stability to the students. If you are a new teacher to the school, you might take the first year not having a home room (or filling in for a departed home room teacher for a year). Then you go to the grade 10 group, you get a home room and you look after it until they graduate. You will either move to another school at that point, or you will spend one more year filling in, or taking a break from having a home room (it's a lot of extra work). The schools in Japan are ranked. As a teacher, your performance is evaluated. As much as I don't like the criteria for evaluation (usually if your students do well scholastically, then your get a good evaluation), I think it's a good system. If you get a good evaluation, you move to a higher level school. If you get a bad evaluation, you move to a lower level school. Certain good teachers (and administrators) are selected to become the department heads in the low level schools. Their job is to improve the poor performance of the teachers. If a teacher falls off the end at a bad school, then they are usually fired. The school I worked at was one of those "last chance" schools and a few teachers I worked with ended up being fired at the end of the year. Unfortunately, due to a huge under supply of qualified teachers, those teachers (who are unbelievably bad -- trust me on that), can easily get work on a contract basis for a year at a time. But they lose at least 30% of their salary, a lot of benefits and job security. I think it's a good system, though it's hard on the teachers because you are always commuting a lot. I live in a rural area, so some teachers have to drive a few hours a day to get to work. In the big city it's easier, because there are a lot more schools in a small area. Still, even if you have a big commute, it will only be for 5 years, and they offer subsidised housing if you need it.