cost if schooling in Japan

[dogsbody70]

Education burdens on rise among Japanese families

There are some interesting comments on here.

[Nyororin]

I am really coming to hate any news place allowing comments - particularly when that news source is covering a country where the majority of the readers do not live.

Usually, the article itself is fine. The comments are hostile and often "out there" - with a small spattering of accurate observances that tend to be ignored by the hordes looking to talk about how the country being talked about sucks.

This follows pretty much the standard pattern.

In the comments on this article bashing parents who send their kids to juku, or who send them to private elementary schools, important things are flat out ignored.

A) Not all public schools are equal.

B) The amount you spend on your child is pretty much up to you. It isn`t a flat rate - it varies immensely based on priorities and preference.

C) YUTORI KYOUIKU and the awful, terrible effect it has had on the entire education system, the economy, and Japanese life in general.

If you are lucky and your child gets into a school/class where the pace is perfect for them, and you (and your child) have reasonable expectations and preferences for education... You can get by without paying much. But if even one of these are off, you can easily spend an incredible amount in an attempt to give your child the best opportunity.

Yutori Kyouiku has made it very easy for the balance to be completely off.
Yutori has tons of expat supporters who just love it. It is complete and total crap, in my personal opinion. The support tends to revolve around "My child doesn`t have to stay at school as many hours each week!" - without looking much deeper.

The older system wasn`t perfect, by any stretch, but it was better.

A good example - Imagine you have a child who is fairly quick to learn. Let`s say that a third of the class is also on the quick side - with maybe the bottom fifth or so being a bit slower than the average pace.

In the past, the lessons would be aimed at the quicker children, the pace adjusted to their learning pace - with additional time dedicated to keeping the other children at the same level.
When a child wasn`t able to pick up something during class, the teachers dedicated one or two hours after school on certain days of the week to providing support and attention to them. Saturday was usually a 2 hours in the morning followed by teacher attention to those having difficulties.

In Yutori, the class pace is adjusted to the level of the slowest children, and with hours cut on top of that so that the class only covers what they can pick up with minimal effort in the short hours. The quicker children are not offered a challenge, and are told to "slow down" "relax" and enjoy their free time.
If a child doesn`t pick up something during the lesson, because the number of hours have been cut they are discouraged from asking a teacher for help or support. (The hours matter for the student, not the teacher - the students aren`t supposed to need to be in school more than the set number of hours, so teachers are pushed to reduce the difficulty of the lessons so that the students don`t NEED any additional support.)

The Yutori system also screws over working parents - when you have to be at home by 1:30 on the earliest day of the week, you can`t really work. This deals another blow to the economy and reduces, again, the number of people wanting to have children. Elementary schools in particular have increased the number of 2 hour days each month (2 hours of classes, where a parent MUST show up at the school to pick the child up. There is no forgiveness for "having to work".)

There is nothing good in this system for anyone other than parents who want their kids home more. Parents who don`t care if public schools are a complete mess because they have the money and time to send their child to tailored learning facilities.
It ends up being a system supported by those who don`t necessarily want more time with their kids - but rather more time to invest in the specific areas of education they prioritize. (With expats, this tends to be education in the other language.)

However - universities have NOT changed their requirements. They have not lowered the level of their classes. They have not made classes easier. The same goes for most high schools.
A child with only normal public school education used to have a fair chance of getting into a good school based on their personal abilities. Now for even the brightest kids, there is such a huge gap between what is covered in the compulsory system and what comes after that it is extremely hard to be able to get into a school that is appropriate to their level. Unless, of course, their parents invest a lot of time and money into education outside of school.

In giving these people the more hours of free time they whined for, the entire level of education has fallen... Making it harder and harder for any child to succeed who DOESN`T have a lot of money invested in their education. This leads to a bigger gap in education based on income, with everyone suffering in the end.
Those with the money to send their kids to private tutors, to top class private schools, etc, are pushing for the hours to be reduced even more so they have even MORE time to send their kids to private tutors and classes.

On the other hand, there is talk about scrapping the Yutori system altogether as it certainly isn`t working for more than a handful of students.

[steven]

I haven't heard of a 2 hour day before Nyororin. I know lessons are definitely geared towards the slowest students though, which is quite frustrating to deal with. I think in some cases this causes what would be bright students to simply lose interest altogether.

Even still though, around here kids might get home at 5 or 6 on average. Sometimes they do have half days, but that would be for Class Sankan purposes or something like that. Most of the time kids get to school before 8 and don't get home until 7 or so though. Of course a lot of time is spent on "club activities" or whatever. Not only that, most kids are in school on the weekends, again for their clubs. It will usually be a half day though.

On top of that some kids still have juku or even club teams outside of their school clubs. Plus they have tests outside of school that they might take on a regular basis (like the Eiken or Kanken or something like that). And then there are games or club events which can take up a weekend.

I have a feeling what I see might be a little extreme. Still though, I find it hard to believe that kids have a life outside of school a lot of the time around here.

I wonder what the result of all this is. Are Japanese people smarter as a result? Do they get better jobs with more pay? Are they happier because of this? The amount of time people spend at work here is a bit depressing from my point of view. The schools around here seem to keep kids in forever which makes me wonder if they aren't just getting people prepared to give their lives away to their work (with "volunteer overtime"). Don't people get burned out causing the quality of their work to falter?

I'll admit that I haven't read the article yet. I just wanted to make a comment and ask some questions that I've been thinking about lately.

[dogsbody70]

I wonder what sort of life these children have if it is all worrk work work.

do they have time to socialise; to actually Live.?

It seems crazy if the compulsory schooling cannot teach the essentials.

kids need free time. the old adage about all work and no play--------


Surely a time will come when they rebel.

[GoNative]

The Hokkaido International School is planning a branch here in Niseko from August next year. Costs range between around Y800,000 to Y1,000,000 per year. Would that be considered expensive?

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by steven

I haven't heard of a 2 hour day before Nyororin.

I didn`t know about them either until I went to elementary school orientation... Then asked around and all the other mothers were completely familiar with them - including relatives out in the middle of nowhere - so I imagine it`s a pretty universal thing. It has something to do with mini teacher meetings and emergency practice something or other. The kids come in the morning, have a class, and then you have to go pick them up. The pace seems to be once every couple weeks.

I know lessons are definitely geared towards the slowest students though, which is quite frustrating to deal with. I think in some cases this causes what would be bright students to simply lose interest altogether.

I think this is completely true. Before, there were indeed complaints that it was stressful for the slower kids in the class... But there were options for these kids to receive additional support or to be tutored outside of school.
Now it`s incredibly boring for the majority of the kids, so many many more kids lose interest. Losing the interest of the slower kids is one thing - losing the majority, including the most intelligent is another. So to keep them interested and motivated parents feel pressured to do something outside of school.

Even still though, around here kids might get home at 5 or 6 on average. Sometimes they do have half days, but that would be for Class Sankan purposes or something like that. Most of the time kids get to school before 8 and don't get home until 7 or so though. Of course a lot of time is spent on "club activities" or whatever. Not only that, most kids are in school on the weekends, again for their clubs. It will usually be a half day though.

Are you talking about elementary or high school?
I am talking about elementary, and getting home at 5 or 6 is unthinkable - not to mention there aren`t really any "clubs" in elementary school. Elementary school students are all home by 3 something, and that is after spending almost an hour playing around at school and then walking (slowly while playing around) home. The same is true for all my son`s cousins who are scattered all over Japan, so it`s not something local.

When you get up into middle and high school, a LOT of this is child initiated - particularly the club stuff. Participation in a club is encouraged, but almost never mandatory (and in the schools where it is, they often have an "opt out" 帰宅部 for those who want to go straight home.) Hanging out at school with your friends can seem a lot more appealing than going home, particularly at that age.

I have a feeling what I see might be a little extreme. Still though, I find it hard to believe that kids have a life outside of school a lot of the time around here.

As I said above - a lot of it is initiated by the kids. Imagine if you were 14 or 15 and wanted to hang out with your friends... And school offered a room where you could sign a paper and say you`re the "映画観覧部", then hang out for an extra hour watching videos and having fun with friends. Add the fact that maybe your house is small and your parents don`t like to have anyone over on a whim.

Being at school - particularly with how open things tend to be at school - doesn`t mean you`re doing anything that is study related.
School gives a safe, parent approved environment to socialize after classes are over. There are some clubs that are very intense - but in my experience, the majority are really just social gatherings with an official name slapped on.

When I was in high school classes ended at 2:45 three days of the week, 3:30 and 1:45 on the other two days. There was 10 minutes of "home room" after the final class (read that as getting ready to leave, putting stuff in bags, etc time), and then 5 minutes of basic cleaning followed by 15 minutes of cleaning somewhere in the building for the people whose turn it was that week.
Clubs started about 5 minutes after the 5 minute cleaning.

There were two serious clubs that competed with other schools - the tennis and dance clubs. The rest were leisure or culture clubs. Club was the thing most everyone looked forward to. You were given an hour or more to mess around with friends in a room the school basically lent to you - no parents will complain about you spending time with friends if it is under the guise of a "club". Occasionally, club would continue outside of school. ie. We`d go out and eat somewhere, or spend time in a park, etc. As long as we could think of some way it connected in with the theme of the club, not only would we have magical approval from parents and teachers - but school would often PAY for it. (For example, the movie club got to go see a movie paid for by school once a month... The art club got to go to museums on the school tab. The baking club got to buy cake... etc.)

If you think of schools as not just a study facility and also as a social facility to keep kids "off the streets" - the long hours seem a bit different. I doubt you`d think twice about kids heading to a local community center to shoot hoops or to just hang out - In Japan, the school building fills this slot.