Las restricciones impuestas durante la pandemia han transformado nuestras relaciones sociales de arriba a abajo. Eso también incluye al amor. El uso de aplicaciones como Tinder se ha disparado en buena parte del mundo. Miles de parejashan pasado meses sin verse. En Japón, país de excepcional soltería, la epidemia ha puesto en jaque los tradicionales puntos de encuentro para las citas y las reuniones románticas.
Y al parecer, los japoneses están contentísimos con ellos.
Al alza. Lo cuenta este reportaje de The Washington Post. Cerrados los bares, las empresas dedicadas a encontrar pareja para los millones de solteros japoneses han optado por alternativas telemáticas. La más popular es Zoom. Donde antes dos interesados se conocían en persona, frente a un plato de comida o a una bebida, ahora lo hacen desde sus casas, por videoconferencia. Las agencias locales hablan de un pequeño y feliz boom.
Tímidos. Los japoneses tienden a ser tímidos. Y que las videoconferencias eliminan los laboriosos protocolos de las reuniones físicas. «Para quienes son más reservados, la posibilidad de reunirte desde tu castillo, desde tu casa, lo hace todo más sencillo, mucho antes que verte superado por un sitio extraño y lleno de gente», explica un afortunado hombre de 31 años que se acaba de casar con una mujer a la que conoció por Zoom.
Tendencia. No hay datos oficiales, pero decenas de miles de personas recurren anualmente a empresas dedicadas profesionalmente a emparejar a japoneses. Es algo más que Tinder: es un agente del amor, del mismo modo que un agente inmobiliario te ayuda a navegar en las oscuras aguas del mercado de pisos. Muchas de estas empresas organizan reuniones grupales de solteros interesados en conocer a otra gente. Son encuentros útiles para romper el hielo y evitar las incomodidades del cara a cara.
La distancia social, en fin, triunfa en Japón.
Arreglos. Es una peculiaridad cultural. El volumen de jóvenes solteros es tan alto que los padres se involucran en el hallazgo de un esposo como pudieran hacerlo siglos atrás. Son ya frecuentes las reuniones de celestinos que acuden a fiestas privadas y exclusivas, a razón de $100 la entrada, con el perfil de sus hijos. Hablan con otros padres en similares situaciones, intercambian perfiles y arreglan una cita entre ambos pretendientes.
Intervencionismo. El amor no es un accidente en Japón, ni siquiera un destino seguro por más que se busque. De ahí que junto a las agencias privadas y a los propios familiares, el estado se haya puesto manos a la obra. En 2017, más del 50% de municipios de Japón habían organizado «citas grupales» en las que habían participado 376.000 personas. Fueron un pequeño éxito, logrando más de 6.100 matrimonios. Si el mercado funciona de manera imperfecta, aparecen las autoridades.
Se trata de la cultura del celestino, institucionalizada a todos los niveles de la vida pública. Es al fin y al cabo una política demográfica. Prefecturas rurales y envejecidas como Saga ejercen de cupidos atrayendo a mujeres jóvenes y urbanas a base de futuros maridos y rebajas fiscales.
Gravedad. Cuesta culparles. En 1950, apenas un 1% de los hombres japoneses se declaraba soltero. El porcentaje hoy supera el 23%. La situación es especialmente preocupante entre los jóvenes. En 2015, el 47% de los hombres y el 34% de las mujeres entre los 30 y los 34 años no se habían casado. El porcentaje superaba el 70% para los varones entre los 25 y los 29 años. Y no es que los japoneses simplemente hayan abandonado el altar: el 70% de los solteros hasta los 34 años no tenía pareja.
Ni sexo. El 42% y el 44% de los hombres y mujeres solteros por debajo de los 34 sigue sin haber tenido relaciones. Japón es el país más asexual del planeta. Una losa demográfica en una nación envejecida, donde 450.000 personas más mueren al año de las que nacen. Un ocaso poblacional que podría reducir un 40% su población a mitad de siglo.
Investigadores franceses y japoneses han conseguido el sueño de los alquimistas: transformar el oro en cristal flexible, con aplicaciones para detectar contaminantes.
Los alquimistas estuvieron durante siglos tratando de convertir el plomo en oro.
Aunque que esta búsqueda resultó infructuosa, investigadores franceses y japoneses han conseguido ahora algo no menos significativo: transformar el oro en vidrio transparente y fibra flexible.
De hecho, la mezcla de una solución de precursores de oro con moléculas de azufre hizo posible, dependiendo de las condiciones de síntesis, formar un material amorfo que tenga las características del vidrio o fibras similares a las presentes en textiles.
Estos materiales, llamados polímeros de coordinación (supramoléculas) de tiolatos de oro, exhiben fuertes enlaces químicos entre el oro y el azufre y forman cadenas unidimensionales.
Además, estos materiales vidriosos y fibrosos, basados en oro, emiten una luz roja intensa cuando se exponen a la radiación ultravioleta.
Por lo tanto, la formación de vidrios transparentes y textiles emisivos hace que estos compuestos sean atractivos para aplicaciones en la visualización o detección de trazas de contaminantes o medicinas dispersas en los ríos por formación in situ de nanopartículas de oro.
How will the pandemic affect universities? How will they metamorphose as they go through the COVID-19 period and then the time after it’s over?
I define the COVID-19 period as the time before vaccines and drugs are developed to combat the new coronavirus. This is the time when the “new normal” of wearing masks, washing hands and maintaining social distances are required to avoid infection in the “Three Cs” environment: closed spaces with poor ventilation, crowded and close-contact settings. In the period that follows, COVID-19 will become an ordinary infectious disease that can be combated by vaccines and drugs, like influenza.
At Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU), where I serve as president, all the classes during the first half of this school year (April-September) are being held online using the Zoom video-conferencing system.
Fortunately, the COVID-19 outbreak is under control to some extent in Japan. So far, some 31,000 people have become infected with the coronavirus and 1,000 have died in this country, while worldwide 16 million people have been infected and more than 640,000 have died. Since Japan accounts for about 1.5 percent of the world’s population, it can be said that it is relatively safe as far as COVID-19 is concerned.
As Japan cautiously tries to return to normalcy, universities are exploring how to normalize their education. In the latter half of the school year, APU plans to hold hybrid classes, with students attending classes on campus when possible, and online classes being provided for students who cannot come to campus or when otherwise appropriate.
Universities have no other choice but to try hybrid teaching since there is no telling when the second wave of coronavirus infections will hit.
As such, we will have to consider several issues: 1) What kind of face-to-face classes are possible while maintaining social distancing under the terms of the new normal; 2) Where to draw a line between online classes (typically large classes with the priority of imparting knowledge to students) and face-to-face classes (typically a seminar in which the teacher and a small group of students discuss specific topics); and 3) To what extent will technology be able to help provide equal educational opportunities for students participating remotely in a class that other students are attending in-person.
During the COVID-19 period, the quality of hybrid teaching will hold the key to the competitiveness of universities.
What will universities be like in the post-COVID-19 period? It is unthinkable that they will completely go back to the old normal because it’s human nature to not let go of things that are found to be convenient. Some of the teachers who become accustomed to the convenience of teaching online from home may not want to return to face-to-face classes.
Does that mean that universities will move toward online teaching and distance learning? The tuition for the broadcast-based Open University of Japan is about one-fifth that of ordinary universities. If this is adopted by other universities, teachers’ salaries or the number of teachers could be reduced to one-fifth. Would Japan be able to maintain its level of research and education under such a system?
If teaching moves online, students will be able to compare class options. Students may in fact be happier if videos of classes taught by popular instructors known for their teaching virtuosity are distributed online — like some prep schools have been doing. In this sense, pursuing an “online” university may result in axing large numbers of teachers and getting rid of big university campuses.
Minerva Schools at KGI, touted as a model for 21st century universities, may give us a hint as to the future of higher education. While all of Minerva’s classes are online, their students are supposed to live in dormitories that are scattered across the globe. The students move among them so they can experience living in various parts of the world.
Minerva attaches importance to the idea of peer learning. Most people are lazy so it is fairly hard for them to study by themselves. In general, students can learn only when they mingle with each other and with teachers. Philip II, king of the ancient Macedon, spent a large sum of money to invite Aristotle from Athens to tutor his son Alexander and provide him with a special education. Philip II then opened a school where Aristotle taught Alexander and select children of other aristocrats.
The idea of peer learning has been handed down unbroken from Ancient Greece to this day. Here lies the essence of university education. It can be said that a university is a form of business that makes sense only when it provides students with a physical environment for learning. The core value of this is joy that is born when students deepen their study by spending time with each other and with university staff, including teachers.
In other words, students deepen their studies through total immersion in campus life, including extracurricular activities. Therefore, there won’t be any problems even if classes, which make up only one part of campus life, are replaced by online teaching. Teachers can use the time spared by online teaching to provide guidance and to advise students on their various needs.
Source of news: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2020/07/28/commentary/japan-commentary/shape-post-pandemic-university-education/
The government aims to improve its outreach to foreign children in Japan to provide them with learning opportunities as part of strategies adopted Tuesday to promote Japanese-language education.
A survey conducted last year by the education ministry yielded an estimate that more than 19,000 elementary or junior high school-age children of foreign nationalities in Japan do not attend school at all, including international schools.
In Japan, compulsory education covers nine years starting at first grade, from about age 6 to 15.
Foreign residents of Japan are not subject to compulsory education but the ministry urges public schools to accept and provide free tuition to any child who wishes to enroll based on international treaties.
The government wants to ensure that all foreign children in Japan have the same educational opportunities as local students.
The basic policy to promote Japanese-language education endorsed at a Cabinet meeting Tuesday says it is the responsibility of the central and local governments to offer Japanese-language education to foreign children.
Under the new policy, local governments will work closely with international schools and relevant nonprofit organizations to better assess the situation and offer parents of foreign children information about their educational options.
Amid growing demand for Japanese-language education both at home and abroad, the basic policy also affirms the need to create new licenses for Japanese-language teachers.
Education minister Koichi Hagiuda stressed the need to deliver best-practice regulation at the municipality level to guarantee learning opportunities for foreign children.
«Based on the basic policy adopted this time, we will strengthen the system» to promote Japanese-language education, he told a press conference.
The policy was adopted based on the law on promotion of Japanese-language education that took effect in June last year. The policy will be reviewed every five years if deemed necessary.
The law stipulates the central government must make legal changes and provide necessary financing to promote Japanese-language education, while local governments are responsible for crafting and implementing specific measures and policies.
It was a major turnaround of the country’s policies on language education, which have conventionally depended heavily on municipal and private efforts.
The legislation initiated by lawmakers was compiled as Japan introduced a new visa system in April last year to accept more foreign blue-collar workers to deal with severe labor shortages caused by the country’s rapidly aging populace.
The number of foreign nationals in Japan stood at record-high 2.93 million as of the end of 2019, up 7.4 percent from the previous year, according to the Immigration Services Agency.
The ministry’s first survey conducted on foreign children’s school attendance in May and June last year found 19,654, or 15.8 percent, of foreign children eligible to enroll may not be attending Japanese elementary or junior high schools.
In addition to education being not compulsory for foreign nationals, the lack of sufficient command of the Japanese language among some children and guardians as well as the varied quality of local government support are suspected as reasons for the result.
The policy was adopted based on the revision to the law on promotion of Japanese language education that was put in force in June last year. The policy will be reviewed every five years if necessary.
Source of the news: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/06/8d735195fa85-govt-seeks-more-inclusion-in-education-for-foreign-children-in-japan.html
Over half of young adults in Japan said they felt there was a gap between the learning opportunities they had access to compared with those of other students in the wake of school closures caused by the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to a recent survey.
The online survey, carried out by the Tokyo-based nonprofit organization Nippon Foundation, found 58.6 percent of respondents aged 17 to 19 felt there was an inequality in education during the pandemic, with some noting the lack of online classes in some schools during the closures.
In the May 26 to 28 survey that covered 1,000 people, some said there were huge discrepancies depending on location and cited the family situation of students, such as whether they had the means to secure the necessary equipment for online learning.
As to what concerned them about extended school closures, those who were worried about their studies accounted for the largest number at 37.4 percent, while for 20.3 percent it was communicating with friends. Respondents concerned about entrance exams for higher education or their employment prospects came to 17.8 percent.
In a section inviting any other comments, some wrote that they were hesitant about their first online classes, and that they were unable to make new friends since starting university.
In a multiple-answer question on potential solutions to making up delays in studies, the most cited measure at 52.5 percent was increasing online classes.
A total of 38.8 percent said schools should reduce the number of holidays, such as shortening the summer vacation, a move that a number of municipalities are considering or have decided to implement.
In the event of another school closure, 50.8 percent said schools should implement and maintain online classes.
«Despite being hesitant about their first virtual classes, they may be expecting this could eliminate inequality or delays in education caused by the spread of the virus,» the foundation said.
Source of the news: https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2020/06/a91eae9a8068-50-young-adults-felt-education-gap-during-school-closures-over-virus.html
Schools in many regions across the nation reopened Monday with staggered attendance, in preparation for a full-scale restart of classes, following the government’s lifting of the state of emergency in 39 of the nation’s 47 prefectures last Thursday.
After the emergency closures, schools are welcoming back students while taking measures to prevent infections of the new coronavirus, such as avoiding overcrowding and shortening school hours.
All elementary and junior high schools in the city of Yamagata resumed classes on Monday. At a municipally run elementary school in the prefectural capital, students wearing face masks started arriving at around 7:30 a.m.
Returning after the two-and-a-half-month school closure, some of them happily talked with friends. “I’m a little afraid that I may get the virus, but I look forward to seeing everybody,” said a second-grade boy, age 7.
With this week as a “warm-up” period, the school will offer classes only in the morning on the first three days. A simple lunch, with only bread and milk being served, will be added to the schedule on Thursday and Friday. The school timetable is slated to return to normal next week.
“First, we need to help students correct their rhythm of life (undermined by the school closure),” said an official at the board of education of the city.
“We aim to take the steps needed gradually, including getting students accustomed to new school lunch rules designed to prevent coronavirus infection,” the official added.
In Toyama Prefecture, schools operated by the prefectural government also reopened Monday — earlier than the initial plan for them to remain shut until the end of this month.
To prevent overcrowding, each student is allowed to attend school just once or twice this week.
At Toyama Chubu High School in the city of Toyama, the prefectural capital, third-grade students were divided into two groups. On Monday, students in one group attended school in the morning while those in the other attended in the afternoon.
One student voiced concern over upcoming university entrance exams, saying, “Studying on my own is difficult.”
“We are concerned whether students will be able to take university entrance exams as scheduled, but we will do everything we can” to support them, said Koichi Hongo, the principal of the high school.
In contrast, the city of Kumamoto remains cautious, planning to start staggered school attendance next week or later. It aims to resume classes fully on June 8.
A municipal official in the prefectural capital said that many people found to have been infected with the novel coronavirus in the prefecture are within the city.
“We need to confirm infection numbers after the end of the Golden Week holiday period” earlier this month, the official added.
Kumamoto Prefectural Government reopened prefecture-run schools on Monday.
Yamagata, Toyama and Kumamoto prefectures are among the 39 for which the coronavirus state of emergency was lifted. The other eight prefectures that remain subject to the state of emergency are Hokkaido, Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama, Kyoto, Osaka and Hyogo.
Source of the notice: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/05/18/national/japan-schools-reopen-state-of-emergency/#.XsyR8DozbIU
Japan is on the cusp of considering reopening schools nationwide but would do better by focusing on ramping up online learning, says Yuka Hasegawa.
It’s been barely two months since Japanese Prime Minister Abe issued an order on Feb 27 for schools to close as part of a first phase of nationwide restrictions to halt the spread of COVID-19 but it feels like forever.
With the announcement coming just four days before the actual shuttering, teachers say they were not given enough heads-up to prepare for education to continue apace while students stay home or design suitable homework.
One might think it strange home-based learning has become this huge challenge for Japan, but the country’s technologically superior reputation masks society’s low-tech workings.
Soon after the news broke, Japanese students and their parents were called back before the closure to collect assignments for the break. These took the form of paper worksheets.
An elementary school student and her mother walk toward her school in Tokyo, Japan, February 28, 2020. (Photo: REUTERS/Issei Kato)
Indeed, the Japanese education system scores well on paper.
The education system continues to produce top-performing students since the inception of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Programme for International Student Assessment, with bigger proportions of the country attaining tertiary education compared to OECD averages.
But a deeper dive into what makes the system tick reveals vulnerabilities in an increasingly digital world when it hasn’t quite made that leap towards embracing information and communications technologies (ICT).
On a macro level, Japan’s public expenditure on primary, secondary and post-secondary education is 2.9 per cent of GDP – one of the lowest among 35 countries – according to an OECD Education at a Glance survey 2019.
Much of it goes to Japanese educators, who pull in some of the world’s longest hours, and have demurred from introducing new technology and teaching methods into the classroom because of lack of familiarity and resistance to change.
What this has also translated into is a sluggishness to transform, where decades-old, one-way instructional teaching remains dominant despite the world increasingly needing education systems to cultivate curiosity, critical thinking and agility, which requires team-based learning and two-way discussions.
On a micro level, that has manifested in low investments in ICT, hindering the adoption of online learning.
There is only one computer for every 5.4 students in public elementary and junior high schools. Few districts have given out computers or tablets for home-based learning during this school closure.
The Japanese government only recently put in place plans to ramp up ICT infrastructure in schools, and for every student to have access to a computer, with 231 billion yen (US$2.15 billion) allocated under a Global Innovation Gateway for All (GIGA) school programme over the next four years.
FILE PHOTO: School students participate in a special lecture about national flags by Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games flag organiser Tadamasa Fukiura (not pictured) at Koto City Ariake Nishi Gakuen in Tokyo, Japan February 10, 2020. REUTERS/Ju-min Park
Even as I write this, in Osaka, one of the countries’ busiest and most densely populated cities, parents have headed to schools to pick up new textbooks and assignments twice in April, and have become responsible for checking their kids’ schoolwork.
This stymying of the adoption of tech also has knock-on effects given the need for social distancing. Take for example, the idea that teachers say they have found keeping tabs on individual students to be close to impossible – because schools have only a limited number of phone lines.
Information regarding assistance for low-income households that need computers and plans for the future regarding home-based learning have not been forthcoming.
JAPAN’S EDUCATION SYSTEM RESTS ON ONLINE LEARNING
The Japanese government knows this situation is less than tenable.
But instead of funneling more resources towards getting online learning up to mark, they are sidestepping that elephant in the room and allowing prefecture authorities to decide, in consultation with the national COVID-19 public health expert panel, whether schools can be reopened, on a case-by-case basis.
Yet risk-averse local governors have kept 95 per cent of the 300,000 public elementary and junior high schools closed as of last week.
Japan knows it has a lot riding now on the Japanese government’s announced acceleration of the GIGA initiative to provide one computer for each student within the 2020 fiscal year.
These plans, long overdue, are supposed to provide for critical infrastructure for households to make online learning a reality, including the rental of mobile routers for those in need and the implementation of a remote learning system.
Schools in Japan have been closed, but that could be counterproductive, experts say. (Photo: AFP/STR)
Yet whither are such plans? Frustrated Tokyo parents, fed up with the lack of progress on this front, have taken to circulating surveys regarding their status and submitting their findings to municipal authorities and the Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
Much has been put on hold while schools scramble to find their footing, with the school term neither here nor there.
Seven prefectures postponed first days of schools, meaning new students have yet to see their classmates or teachers, but, weirdly, have worksheets for studying at home and little contact with their teachers.
The lack of communication is throwing what has been a big transition point in the lives of many students into disarray, though in a warped way, this disorientating feeling is a rare, shared experience many Japanese are finding some level of togetherness on as the pandemic threatens to split Japanese society.
While COVID-19 is bringing into sharper focus the digital challenges that have plagued Japan’s education system, it has also accentuated disparities between well-funded private schools, where students have easy access to advanced educational online resources and an array of personal devices that aid remote learning, and scrappier public schools that do not have the benefit of generous corporate sponsors or well-endowed, successful alumni.
When much of Japan’s aspirations to be an egalitarian society rests on the small shoulders of the education system, public schools have ironically avoided technological adoption to avoid avert accentuating disparities between families that can afford electronic devices and those who cannot.
Yet, such a disposition has put all their students at a far greater disadvantage this coronavirus outbreak.
Where over 1.4 million students (or about 15 per cent) have subscribed to lunch school fees, these needed services have also been suspended given distribution challenges, with the food donated to quarantined patients cooped up in hotel facilities.
A LOST GENERATION?
Much has been said about the lost generation of Japanese graduates who entered the job market in the decade after the early-1990s, when the country underwent a period of stagnation. Japan is facing a situation of similarly unprecedented proportions.
An employee of an official nursery school taking care of young children in Yokohama. (Photo: AFP)
Some hope lies ahead as Osaka governor Hirofumi Yoshimura announced on Apr 22 an intention to shorten the summer vacation to secure class time for schools if the coronavirus comes under better control.
But news of a Toyama prefecture cluster that same day, where four students and a class teacher in Shinmei Elementary School were found to be infected with the coronavirus despite being in contact for only four days, suggest we are unlikely to see a mass reopening of all schools in Japan even if significant precautions were taken.
Until the virus can be brought under control, Japan needs to ramp up its ability to roll out online learning.
That has been talk about tech but more focus should be shone on the human beings, especially the policymakers who must get into swift action to make this happen. This would especially require the cooperation of educators to embrace uncertainty and adapt to new ways of teaching.
Source of the notice: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/commentary/japan-close-schools-coronavirus-covid-19-online-learning-laptops-12683174
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