To think kids should clean schools as in Japan?

[brasty]

In Japan, kids clean up after themselves in schools. It is to teach them respect for their surroundings and to take responsibility for caring about those surroundings. AIBU to think this would be a good idea to introduce into British schools?

Good idea

When I was at Primary school we cleaned our own lunch tables and swept and mopped

Children in my school do have to tidy and organise the classroom - they are good at it and they enjoy it, but many of them are incredibly messy - sometimes deliberately so - in the lunch hall. It does not occur to some of them to take the smallest part in tidying there (wiping up spilled water, picking up potoatoes from the floor). I think that should be a very clear expectation and there should be Cleaning Prefects.

If MarytheCanary's post is even half true, nobody can sanely support this policy. It seems very clear from those who have posted with experience of the Japanese system that it doesn't, in fact, 'work' there. Especially not if the end result is yet more unpaid labour for women. Personally if I clean toilets other than those in my own home again, I shall expect to be paid at least NMW for it as I was when I was employed to do it.

Also there seems to be a lot of confusion between children tidying up after themselves and engaging in full on cleaning of premises.

I agree. It works well in Japan as it's normal to them and if school children did it here it would slowly become normal here too.
They also thank their teacher at the end of the day which is really nice.

In Japan they just sweep the corridors and classroom and wipe down surfaces etc. It works fine. Often the toilets are left for the older kids to do. Kids in Japan don't really do chores at home so cleaning the school is an alternative.

How does it work well in Japan though, if the kids piss about and they rely on the unpaid labour of the mothers? That sounds like the opposite of working well.

There's occasional messing about during cleaning time but they can't go home until the cleanings finished so that's a pretty good incentive to get on with it plus the teachers are there during cleaning time and give tellings off for messing around.

I've never heard of mothers being asked to clean schools. We have to go in to my daughter's kindergarten once a year for cleaning but if I have work then I skip it. There were dads there too last time I went.

Actually, I just remembered once a year we do go in and help weed the playground. I've only done it once. It only takes an hour once a year, hardly a great hardship.

Can't speak for Japan, but same practice in Korea and it doesn't work at all.

Sounds like a rather mixed bag then. Still not really enough to back up OPs assertion that it works in Japan.

As for volunteering, I don't mind the principle of volunteering at my kids school one day a year, but certainly not in any capacity that would lose anyone their job. No thank you. People on cleaner wages have enough to worry about already.

I think tidying up after themselves and wiping down surfaces is enough. I've worked as a school cleaner and the thing that I would have wanted most (that I did in school in the UK so assume its still the case now) is that the desks were wiped and the chairs put on top of them so I could sweep the floors quickly and easily instead of having to move chairs all the time.
Oh, and that the blackboard/whiteboard was wiped clean, because having to do that as well added on extra time that wasn't there (had to clean a classroom in ten minutes max and could just about manage to sweep and mop in that time but everything else like emptying bins and cleaning the board took me over the time)

Have just remembered:

At Secondary school, back in the days of lift-up desks with inkwells. we had to bring in sandpaper and sandpaper our own desks off (whether we'd grafitied them or not0

I think wiping down tables and sweeping under them with a dustpan and brush to get rid of bits, putting equipment away (wiping it down if necessary), putting chairs on top of desks, sorting and tidying whiteboard pens, cleaning the board, emptying the wastepaper bin bag when full and so on are great. If kids make a mess, they should clean up (not least because it makes them more careful about trashing the place in the first place).

Scrubbing out toilets and sinks and kitchen surfaces etc. though? Mopping floors that have a week's worth of serious grime all over them? Proper cleaners, please. With buckets, bleach and Mr Muscle. Otherwise things are liable to get stinky, and surfaces end up with a permanent film of grime and grease all over them.

What, and put the cleaners out of work? No problem tidying up after themselves, putting chairs up etc, but actual cleaning should be done by properly paid professionals.