Teachers and other adults must take countermeasures at an early stage and deal with problems as a group to curb "classroom collapse," according to an Education Ministry report.
The report, compiled by a team from the National Institute for Educational Research, examines 150 cases in which elementary school classes did not function. These instances were typified by children ignoring teachers and being unruly and destructive.
The report concludes that classroom breakdown can occur at any school -- regardless of class size, gender of teacher or age of children. However, cases were recorded in which chaos was attributed to a sudden rise in class size, it says.