Japan will provide more support for educating children of foreign nationals from early childhood through high school, including by increasing Japanese-language classes, under a plan released Monday.
The education ministry’s proposals follow changes in April to immigration law that allow certain foreign workers to bring family with them to Japan. Schools had already been facing a rise in students learning Japanese as a second language, prompting criticism that efforts on this front were lagging.
Monday’s plan, which calls for working «to ensure that all children of foreign nationals have educational opportunities,» seeks to provide seamless support to learners from preschoolers to job-seeking international students.
It proposes multi-language guides to ensure parents have information on how to enroll students at kindergartens and elementary schools.
Public schools are to receive more teachers for Japanese as a second language as well as aides who speak the languages of foreign students. Some schools currently have no such staff. Regions with a shortage of human resources will use translation and distance-learning systems.
Public high schools will be asked to give special considerations for Japanese-language learners when taking admissions tests, such as making it easier to read kanji characters and allowing the children to bring dictionaries into the exam rooms.
The ministry proposes creating an evening middle school program in every prefecture and major city for those who could not receive compulsory education in their home countries.
The initiative also will help international students in higher education find jobs in Japan, proposing the certification of collaboration programs between universities and businesses.
The plan covers Japanese-language learners of all ages.A 14-language online curriculum for self-study will be developed for residents of areas that lack easy access to Japanese-language classes
Source of the notice: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-immigration/Japan-to-boost-education-support-for-non-native-children2
Japanese junior high school teachers worked the longest hours on average among 48 countries and regions surveyed by the OECD, it said Wednesday.
Junior high teachers in the country worked 56 hours per week on average, compared with 38.3 hours a week among all of the participants in the “2018 Teaching and Learning International Survey.”
It is the second time in a row that the OECD has found that Japanese teachers work the longest hours, and their hours increased an average of 2.1 hours from the previous survey in 2013.
Similarly, primary school teachers in Japan worked 54.4 hours a week, longer than their peers in 15 countries and economies surveyed.
The survey for Japan was conducted by the Paris-based institution from February to March 2018, with questionnaires sent to 3,568 junior high school teachers, 3,321 elementary school teachers and around 400 principals.
The education ministry decided in January to cap overtime for teachers at 45 hours per month, or 360 hours over 12 months.
A junior high school teacher spent an average of 7.5 hours per week on students’ extracurricular club activities, compared with the overall average of 1.9 hours a week, while administrative work took up 5.6 hours, compared with the total average of 2.7 hours.
Primary school teachers in Japan spent longer on planning, preparing lessons and paperwork than those in other countries. Such teachers devoted an average of 0.6 hour to extracurricular activities.
Japan’s new curriculum guidelines promote deeper learning through independent and interactive means, but the percentage of secondary school teachers who frequently or always gave “tasks that require students to think critically” was 12.6 percent, the lowest figure and a far cry from the 61 percent average among all the countries surveyed.
Further, only 16.1 percent of teachers in Japan presented “tasks for which there is no obvious solution,” compared with the 37.5 percent average among all the countries surveyed.
A 57-year-old teacher at a public junior high school in Saitama Prefecture said much of the overtime at his school is not recorded. As a veteran teacher, he is loaded with tasks, such as helping managers and taking care of younger teachers. He arrives at work just after 6 a.m. and finishes work at 7 p.m. at the earliest. On his busiest days, he works until around 9 p.m. He sometimes has to clear his backlog of work before and after the school’s extracurricular activities that he supervises on weekends.
A board of education in his local area has set a goal of not exceeding 80 hours of overtime per month, which is regarded as the threshold for karōshi, or death caused by overwork. His school introduced a system to keep track of teachers’ work hours about six months ago.
The teacher’s amount of monthly overtime topped 80 hours in April, yet his managers only prodded him to leave work as early as possible, and the school has shown little intention of overhauling teachers’ assignments in detail.
The man has since learned to record fewer hours than he has actually worked. Many of his colleagues do likewise.
“The number of work hours has decreased, when you take it at face value,” the teacher said. “But that is meaningless.”
Another teacher at a public junior high school in Tokyo said he now has reduced workloads related to extracurricular activities and other tasks.
But the 35-year-old still works 80 to 100 hours of overtime per month. He said he spends a lot of time attending to students’ parents and other things.
“The amount of work for teachers has been increasing for the sake of students. We should consider what it really means to ‘serve students well’ and review our work,” he said.
Source of the notice: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/06/20/national/japans-junior-high-school-teachers-face-longest-average-working-hours-oecd-survey/#.XSKS9OgzbIU
To allow or not to allow smartphones in schools, that is the question. Educators around the world are struggling with this issue as it becomes increasingly obvious that mobile devices, the most practical of distractions, are deeply entrenched in our postmodern lives and are not going away anytime soon. Earthquake-prone Japan is no exception.
In Tokyo, mobile devices were banned altogether in elementary and junior high schools in 2009, and have been prohibited in high school classrooms. These limitations are finally being lifted due to safety concerns, the local board of education announced on June 20, according to the Japan Times.
The move comes after officials in the prefecture of Osaka rethought their ban on devices in schools last year. In June 2018, an earthquake rocked the region during morning commute hours, and the utility of cellphones then prompted the local government to lift its prohibition on the devices in educational institutions serving young students. In May, officials in Tokyo commissioned a report to assess whether the same action would be practical in the nation’s capital and concluded that it was, based on the prevalence of smartphones among students and their usefulness in emergency situations.
A study last year found that more than 97% of Japanese high school students already use smartphones. This means that in cases of emergency, the vast majority of teens could be located and accounted for via their devices. Now, principals at each municipal high school and junior high school will have to determine specific rules for their institutions and communicate the new guidelines to students. While some may allow smartphones in classrooms, others are free to choose to limit device use to commutes and can continue to prohibit them during lesson times.
Japan is not alone in its effort to contend with the contradictions of student smartphone use. However, its recent decisions run counter to the direction of some governments.
In France, classroom smartphone use for students ages three to 15 was banned last year. The measure was passed enthusiastically by a vote of 62 to one. “We know today that there is a phenomenon of screen addiction…Our main role is to protect children and adolescents. It is a fundamental role of education, and this law allows it,” education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told French news channel BFMTV about the legislation.
However, some criticized the measure as unnecessary, as France banned all smartphone use in classrooms—except for pedagogical use—in 2010. “This isn’t a 21st-century law in our eyes, but a law from the era of news channels and binary debate,” said former teacher Alexis Corbière, a deputy from the left-wing Unbowed France party, according to a CNN report.
In California, Democratic assemblyman Al Muratsuchi of Torrance introduced a school smartphone bill (paywall) in March that would allow administrators to limit technology in schools. It would require local school boards to formulate policies on cellphone use on school grounds but will not dictate the rules, allowing administrators to reach their own conclusions.
“To the extent that smartphones are becoming too much of a distraction in the classroom, I think every school community needs to have that conversation as to when is too much of a good thing getting in the way of educational and social development,” Muratsuchi said after introducing the bill. He noted, too, that many school districts have already had these discussions and formulated such limitations.
In Australia, the New South Wales government also decided to limit cellphones in schools last year. After a review led by psychologists considered 14,000 survey responses and 80 written submissions, local officials determined that primary school kids will be barred from using smartphones in school to reduce bullying and sharing of explicit images. High schools have the option of deciding whether to participate in the ban and to what extent.
Education minister Rob Stokes noted that cellphones can be educational, “But they can also be dangerous and be a distraction.” ABC News Australia reported that the minister wasn’t concernedthat students would respond negatively to the change, explaining that many complaints about the technology actually came from the youth themselves, who claimed the devices were distracting.
Source of the notice: https://qz.com/1650676/japan-rethinks-school-smartphone-bans-following-earthquakes/
Científicos nipones disparan neutrinos contra dos enormes depósitos subterráneos de agua pura y proyectan construir un tercero, aún más grande, que posibilitará experimentos inéditos.
Los astrofísicos llevan décadas esperando interceptar algún haz de partículas proveniente de la explosión de supernovas. Cuentan con enormes instalaciones para eso, como el observatorio de neutrinos en Kamioca, Japón.
Sin embargo, desde los años 1980 solo han detectado 24 neutrinos –todos provenientes de una sola supernova– y precisamente en esa década del siglo pasado, destacó este lunes en un artículo multimedia Jake Sturmer, corresponsal de Australian Broadcasting Corporation, quien visitó recientemente el observatorio nipón.
Ese conjunto de múltiples detectores, que recibe el nombre de Kamiokande, fue construido en un subterráneo para evitar el ruido de partículas omnipresentes en la atmósfera. Después de aquella primera hazaña, los científicos nipones erigieron una segunda versión, el Súper-Kamiokande. Allí fue registrada la primera evidencia de oscilaciones de neutrinos: otro éxito científico de los finales del siglo pasado.
Por el momento, las dos gigantescas cavernas subterráneas coexisten. «Son simplemente tanques de agua pura o muy limpia, rodeados de colectores de luz», explicó el profesor Mark Vagins, colaborador del proyecto nipón, quien acompañó al periodista a la más grande de esas instalaciones.
Estos depósitos, con 3.000 y 50.000 toneladas de agua, respectivamente, contribuyen a la busca de «pistas sobre los orígenes de nuestro Universo» por medio de la radicación de Cherenkov, producida por partículas eléctricamente cargadas a su paso por el agua y a velocidades superiores a la de la luz en dicho medio. Las paredes constan de miles de detectores dorados de partículas. Básicamente son grandes bombillas, pero «bombillas al revés», puesto que capturan la luz en vez de producirla y emiten la electricidad que consume una bombilla normal. De esta manera los físicos se enteran del paso de un neutrino a gran velocidad a través del depósito.
Una variedad de neutrinos y su detección
Cada supernova es «una bomba de neutrinos», según Vagins, quien las calificó también como «la mejor fuente de neutrinos».
A su vez, los miles de detectores son tan sensibles que si estuvieran en la Luna, podrían detectar una cerilla encendida sobre la Tierra. Además, reaccionan de manera distinta al paso de neutrinos que emanan de fuentes diferentes, lo que permite distinguir si provienen de una supernova y rompen moléculas de agua, o de una fuente terrestre (como una central nuclear), o del Sol, cuyos neutrinos también fueron interceptados por el observatorio nipón.
No obstante, Vagins comparó la posibilidad de atrapar aquellos que llegan de las supernovas con «una ventana al pasado». Y es que, según la teoría que postula, «cada átomo de oxígeno que respiramos, cada uno que está en el agua que bebemos, en el agua de nuestros cuerpos (…) se formó en el corazón de una estrella muerta, explotada, que desapareció hace mucho».
En espera de una nueva explosión de supernova, los estudiosos calibran la sensibilidad de los detectores disparando protones y neutrinos hacia eldepósito. Estos disparos se efectúan desde el acelerador de partículas J-PARC, situado a 295 kilómetros de distancia y a casi 2 kilómetros de profundidad, más cerca de Tokio.
Además, los investigadores propusieron agregar al agua un metal plateado de tierras raras, llamado gadolinio, para aumentar aún más la sensibilidad del sistema detector. Vagins es uno de los científicos encargados de reiniciar el funcionamiento del conjunto a finales de este año o principios del próximo, ya con este ingrediente adicional.
Del ‘Súper’ al ‘Híper’
La caza de neutrinos podría ascender a un nivel tecnológico jamás visto con la puesta en marcha del depósito número tres, que los científicos llaman Híper-Kamiokande. Un anteproyecto apunta a una gigantesca cámara detectora de neutrinos, con 260.000 toneladas de agua y 40.000 fotomultiplicadores, que son los detectores ópticos de vacío.
Las tareas que podrían plantearse a partir de esa instalación de tercera generación «llevan más allá del modelo estándar y hacia una física nueva«, valoró el profesor Yuri Kudenko, del Instituto de Investigaciones Nucleares de la Academia de Ciencias de Rusia. El catedrático compartió este lunes con RIA Novosti los planes de largo alcance que diseñan los colaboradores del observatorio.
Kudenko destacó entre esas tareas la medición de la masa exacta del neutrino, la comprensión de la asimetría entre la materia y la antimateria y la búsqueda de algunas pistas de desintegración de protones, que es un proceso hipotético jamás visto, puesto que la expectativa de vida estimada de un protón supera la de todo el Universo.
Se espera que el Gobierno de Japón apruebe el proyecto de la construcción a finales del año en curso y que las obras comiencen en abril del 2020. La nueva instalación podría estar lista para experimentos en el 2027.
En el Súper-Kamiokande se han registrado aproximadamente 10 «eventos de neutrino» al mes (inducidos todos por el acelerador de partículas), mientras que en el nuevo depósito los podría haber hasta siete u ocho veces más, señaló el físico ruso.
La noticia, publicada en mayo pasado en el sitio web del propio observatorio, apuntó también al uso potencial del Híper-Kamiokande para medir con precisión el tiempo y cantidades de luz. El colectivo estuvo ese mes probando unos prototipos de circuitos electrónicos hechos con fibra óptica, capaces de mandar a distancia la «señal de tiempo» con una precisión cercana a 100 picosegundos (una mil millonésima parte de un segundo).
Easier-to-read entrance tests among proposals for more inclusive schools
Japan will provide more support for educating children of foreign nationals from early childhood through high school, including by increasing Japanese-language classes, under a plan released Monday.
The education ministry’s proposals follow changes in April to immigration law that allow certain foreign workers to bring family with them to Japan. Schools had already been facing a rise in students learning Japanese as a second language, prompting criticism that efforts on this front were lagging.
Monday’s plan, which calls for working «to ensure that all children of foreign nationals have educational opportunities,» seeks to provide seamless support to learners from preschoolers to job-seeking international students.
It proposes multi-language guides to ensure parents have information on how to enroll students at kindergartens and elementary schools.
Public schools are to receive more teachers for Japanese as a second language as well as aides who speak the languages of foreign students. Some schools currently have no such staff. Regions with a shortage of human resources will use translation and distance-learning systems.
Public high schools will be asked to give special considerations for Japanese-language learners when taking admissions tests, such as making it easier to read kanji characters and allowing the children to bring dictionaries into the exam rooms.
The ministry proposes creating an evening middle school program in every prefecture and major city for those who could not receive compulsory education in their home countries.
The initiative also will help international students in higher education find jobs in Japan, proposing the certification of collaboration programs between universities and businesses.
The plan covers Japanese-language learners of all ages.A 14-language online curriculum for self-study will be developed for residents of areas that lack easy access to Japanese-language classes.
Source of the notice: https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Japan-immigration/Japan-to-boost-education-support-for-non-native-children2
Yumi Ishikawa, una escritora y actriz de Tokio de 32 años, decidió en enero acabar con una norma no escrita que la afectaba en su día a día laboral.
La chica, que trabajaba en una funeraria, asegura que la obligaban a llevar tacones de entre 5 y 7 centímetros, lo que le provocaba dolores.
Y decidió denunciarlo en las redes sociales.
Sus tuits sobre la cuestión se volvieron virales: más de 30.000 personas los compartieron.
Ishikawa lo llevó más allá y decidió iniciar una campaña digital para que las empresas no pudiesen exigir a sus trabajadoras que llevasen tacón en el lugar de trabajo.
Y la petición ya cuenta con más de 27.000 firmas de apoyo (y subiendo).
En un guiño al movimiento #MeToo, esta campaña lleva por nombre #KuToo, un juego con las palabras ‘kutsu’, que significa ‘zapato’, y ‘kutsuu’, que significa ‘dolor’.
Aunque no se trata de una norma escrita, los activistas aseguran que en Japón el uso de tacones se considera obligatorio, por ejemplo, al solicitar puestos de trabajo.
Ishikawa, que en su foto de Twitter aparece con unas cómodas deportivas, afirmó: «Espero que esta campaña modifique la norma social para que no se considere de mala educación que las mujeres lleven zapatos planos como los hombres».
«La gente debe darse cuenta de que esto es discriminación sexual. Necesitamos enojarnos por esto. Pero nos enseñaron a vivir así durante muchos años», añadió.
La chica entregó la petición con casi 19.000 miles de firmas al Ministerio de Salud y Trabajo japonés, el encargado de las reformas laborales, la semana pasada.
Y aunque explicó que se había reunido con un funcionario que se mostró «comprensivo» con la petición, el ministro de Sanidad japonés, Takumi Nemoto, hizo unas declaraciones que no ayudan a su causa.
Al preguntarle su parecer sobre la campaña iniciada por Ishikawa, Nemoto aseguró que el uso de tacones por parte de las mujeres en el trabajo a veces es «necesario y apropiado«.
El ministro hizo estos comentarios en la misma comisión parlamentaria en la que el legislador Kanako Otsuji sugirió que estos convencionalismos están «desactualizados», según informa la agencia de noticias Kyodo News.
Antecedentes
No es la primera vez que se lanza una campaña para cambiar los códigos de vestimenta en el trabajo para las mujeres, y algunas incluso han tenido éxito.
La británica Nicola Thorp inició una petición para que se cambiaran los códigos de vestimenta en Reino Unido después de que la compañía financiera PwC le pidiera que llevase tacones.
Thorp, que tenía un contrato temporal, se negó a cumplir con el código de vestimenta. Después de que su caso llegase a los medios de comunicación, la empresa de subcontratación Portico anunció que sus trabajadoras podrían «llevar zapatos planos» con efecto inmediato.
Mientras, en Canadá,la provincia de la Columbia Británica eliminó el código que exige que las empleadas lleven tacones, ya que aseguraron que las mujeres que los usan corren el riesgo de sufrir lesiones físicas por resbalones o caídas, además de posibles daños en los pies, las piernas y la espalda.
The information-technology revolution over the last few decades represents the latest development in the innate desire of humankind throughout its history to thrive at an optimal level through the use of technology.
We now take for granted instant access to information anywhere on the planet, and the pace of advancement shows no sign of abating. Technology confined to the realms of science fiction and futuristic fantasy not that long ago is now embedded in our everyday life and is unfolding at a rapid pace.
The new kids on the block — artificial intelligence, big data with data log via AI, the “internet of things,” robotics and so forth — are even pushing us past the information-technology era. Self-driving cars, drones, artificial interpreters and care robots are just a few already in practical use.
As always, advancements bring challenges, not least of all in the field of education. Education has to keep pace with technology and utilize its benefits at the grassroots level — or risk creating a disparity between the classroom and the real world.
A working group under the umbrella of the Cabinet secretariat’s education reform council, of which I am a member, focuses on education innovation using advanced technology. The group meets every three or four weeks to discuss strategies to meet these challenges. One area of development that excites me is the possibility of producing personal records for each student containing their learning history. Using AI technology, such records could include continuous evaluations, achievements, health condition and more, from elementary to secondary and even to higher education.
Analyzing such information holds great potential. Students, for instance, could be offered a personalized study plan with suggested content identified to address their weaknesses as well as programs for improving their established strengths. A student who demonstrates manual dexterity could be made aware of that and guided into pathways leading to fulfilling opportunities in such fields as craftwork. A student with exceptional social skills could be made aware of possible careers in sales or services.
Such information could be particularly useful when choosing a field of study in higher education, and ultimately one’s career. Until now, university admission has been mainly determined by fixed points of observation and evaluation through testing. However, the method would enable an approach to observe students continually over a sustained period of time, helping to create a custom-made program for a student’s particular strengths and passions.
This continuous recording or portfolio approach could also be useful for businesses and improve the function of their human resources departments as they decide where best to place their newly employed college graduates.
The son of one of my friends recently quit his job two years after being appointed to the general affairs department because his strengths and personality were not suited for such a post. This had a devastating impact on his confidence and self-esteem.
This is not a rare case. Many high school students are advised to apply for any field of study in higher education depending on the level of their academic scores. It is not unusual for a student to apply for law at one university, economics at another, literature at yet another and even education at a fourth. Evaluating a personal portfolio record with AI would thankfully make this kind of practice in university admission a thing of the past.
Another area where technology can bring about dramatic and significant changes is with regard to resources made available to students at schools. Up until now, textbooks have been the main and almost only resource being used in classrooms. But technology offers a huge range of resources such as apps, YouTube videos and other online content. All of these can support students to have deeper and broader understanding in their learning.
Of course the proliferation of such resources requires that a new set of critical thinking skills should be developed; new and constantly changing information must be critically appraised for trustworthiness and appropriateness.
It is inconceivable that any school utilizing new technology would not have the support of IT engineers or technicians. Installing apps to support downloading resources, managing and running servers for information, sharing information with students to provide a network that respects privacy, and so on, means the work will be extensive. The support of IT sectors should be requested so that engineers would be dispatched to help such work at public schools.
The government should not be tempted to order schools to use teachers to take on IT roles of any kind in addition to their teaching task. It is no secret that teachers at Japanese public schools work notoriously long hours, in fact more than in any other OECD country. Implementation of advanced technology for education requires specialist skills, which take years to develop.
It is essential that manpower is made available to provide material for teachers to use in the classroom. The material should be derived from a wide array of resources and follow the national curriculums for every grade.
If this manpower cannot be provided, then a solid resource database updated almost daily can be provided for teachers to use. Teachers should be able to scan the database with ease and choose the content suitable for their class to use.
The challenge is to bring the latest technology effectively into schools and at the same time allow teachers to concentrate on the important job for which they are trained: nurture and care for our future generations
Source of the article: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2019/01/31/commentary/japan-commentary/education-must-keep-pace-technology-stay-relevant/#.XPWFl9IzbMx
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