An Education Ministry research council called on kindergarten and elementary school teachers Monday to cooperate to control unruly students and halt a breakdown in classroom order that has plagued Japan in recent years.

The Research Council on Early Childhood Education, which consists of 16 researchers, kindergarten teachers and local education officials, said in an interim report that teachers should train together so they can tackle the problem more effectively.

The frequency of pupils ignoring teachers' instructions, talking among themselves or walking about the classroom has increased recently. Some teachers have even had nervous breakdowns due to such chaos.

Education experts have said the phenomenon is especially visible at elementary schools, partly because of the difference in teaching methods at kindergartens.

Some children accustomed to a play-study curriculum in kindergarten cannot adapt to elementary schools, where they are supposed to sit still and study, according to the experts.

The council, established in February, said in the report that each kindergarten classroom should have two or more teachers because teachers are much busier than in the past.

In recent years, kindergartens have started to offer a wide variety of programs, often taking children out to parks and homes for the elderly, the report says.

In addition, more and more kindergartens are accepting 3-year-olds, who require more attention than 4-year-olds and 5-year-olds, the traditional age of kindergartners.

In 1975, 2.8 percent of public kindergartens and 65.6 percent of private ones accepted 3-year-olds, but the percentages jumped to 19 percent at public and 96.7 percent at private kindergartens in 1999.