Australia’s international education representative body is vowing to curb its carbon emissions, as the bushfire emergency elevates climate consciousness across the scorched country.
The International Education Association of Australia is developing a carbon neutral policy to mitigate the climate impacts of globetrotting education leaders. Meanwhile the leading university body is joining education minister Dan Tehan’s crisis meeting on the bushfires.
Mr Tehan said Prime Minister Scott Morrison had asked him to call the meeting of the sector’s representatives “to hear first-hand how the bushfires have impacted education, and how our government can help”.
The summit, scheduled for 15 January, echoes similar forums of key players in other sectors. It will focus primarily on schools and childcare centres, where the summer break ends much earlier than at universities.
But Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson said the meeting offered an opportunity to thrash out how her members could continue supporting affected communities.
“University expertise is being deployed to help the community make sense of the crisis, across almost every aspect,” she said.
Ms Jackson highlighted the need for clear communication with international students during the crisis. She said students heading for Australia should contact their prospective universities if they had queries or concerns, while those already in the country should “reach out to university support services if they feel distressed or anxious”.
The support has not all been one-way, with international students among those contributing to the relief effort. International media has carried a story about Mark Yeong, a Singaporean student at the University of Sydney who joined a volunteer firefighting brigade.
International education representatives from Australia’s eight states and territories are also putting together a joint statement on the bushfire emergency, in collaboration with the education and trade departments and IEAA.
Its primary focus is ensuring the safety of current and incoming foreign students, in line with provisions outlined in a “collaborative marketing framework” developed a year ago by the Council for International Education, which is convened by IEAA chief executive Phil Honeywood.
The provisions are designed to coordinate the sector’s responses to critical incidents, and to ensure that jurisdictions do not profit from each other’s misfortunes in situations like the bushfire crisis.
Mr Honeywood said the disaster had also presented an “appropriate time to have a comprehensive look at the carbon footprint situation and to lead by example”. He said that given their considerable domestic and overseas travel, international education representatives needed to find ways to alleviate the climate impact.
This included encouraging webinars and teleconferences as an alternative to international travel. When flying became unavoidable, education representatives should support measures offered by airlines to mitigate the carbon footprint, such as paying for trees to be planted.
He said the industry should also look at ways of reducing the far greater carbon footprint generated by the international travel of students themselves. An obvious measure was to put more resources into branch campuses rather than focusing on onshore recruitment.
“Australia has not been very good on transnational education,” he said. “Surely it’s part of our mission as a sector to be more accessible to the largest number of students possible…to provide world class education in countries where it’s not readily available.”
He said the policy was expected to be approved by the end of February.
Source of the notice: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/australian-education-bodies-take-action-bushfires-still-rage
Before last Sunday’s attack in Jawaharlal Nehru University, the students’ union was protesting a fee hike in the university for months. An analysis of National Statistical Organisation (NSO) data shows that affordable education is a larger problem that needs to be seriously discussed.
The NSO recently released a report based on an all-India survey conducted in 2017-18. The survey shows that only 10.6% of the Indian population aged above 15 years has successfully completed a graduate degree. This proportion is only 5.7% in rural India and is 8.3% among women. The proportion of graduates in the same age group was 8.2% as per the 2011 Census.
Since micro data for the 2017-18 survey on education is not yet available, it is not possible to go into the socio-economic background of those who received higher education. Another NSO survey, the 2017-18 Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS),can be used for this, though.
The PLFS data confirms the intuitive belief that social and economic disadvantages perpetuate educational inequalities. The proportion of the population (15 years and above) with a graduate or a higher degree is much lower for the socially backward sections than others. Muslims fare worse than even the Scheduled Caste (SC) Hindus. To be sure, the social gap has been reducing over the years, but it still remains significant. There is also a gender gap when it comes to access to education. (See table 1)
A similar pattern can be seen by economic status as well. Disaggregation by deciles of monthly per capita consumer expenditure shows a strong correlation between economic status (spending) and educational attainment. Data clearly shows the social gap in educational attainment as well as the gap by economic status across and within socio-religious groups. (See table 2)
The NSO report on education also tells us about the average cost of education in the country.
The average annual expense on a graduate course was Rs 10,501 in a government institution, and almost double in an unaided private institution (Rs 19,972). The expenditure for a graduate degree in technical courses in a government college was Rs 36,180 as compared to Rs 72,712 in private unaided institutions.
This must be seen along with the income data available from PLFS (2017-18): 45% of the regular workers, 60% of the self-employed and almost all casual workers earned less than Rs 10,000 a month.
Overall, about 67% of Indian workers earned less than Rs 1,20,000 in a year.
India remains a country with an overwhelming number of poor people who cannot afford expensive education.
The NSS report on education spending also reveals that in the age group of 3 to 35 years, 15% of men and 14% of women never enrolled in an educational institution because of financial constraints; 5% of women never enrolled as there was ‘no tradition in community’.
Among those who were enrolled at some point in time but were not attending at the time of the survey, 24% of men and 18% of women cited financial constraints as the reason for dropping out; 13% of women cited marriage as the reason for dropping out.
What is the importance of a graduate degree in India? If we look at the distribution of graduates in the workforce, 62% were in regular jobs in 2017-18. The wage for a worker with a graduate (or higher) degree in salaried jobs was 1.6 times the overall average wage of a regular worker.
Here, it must be noted that the unemployment rate is much higher among the educated.
Quality education leads to better job prospects and higher wages for all, but also provides a path for social mobility. Students’ demand for better and just prospects for all is completely justified.
Source of the article: https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/affordable-education-still-out-of-reach-for-indians/story-Ud6MFDKYfUrnTKMnqX4Y8J.html
From his home in Shanghai, Vita Zhou hosts training videos for other children on how to code for artificial intelligence. He already has almost 80,000 followers on the Chinese streaming website Bilibili, and some of his videos have gained more than 1.3 million views. Vita has even attracted the attention of Apple CEO Tim Cook, who sent him birthday wishes Monday on Weibo, China’s equivalent of Twitter.
“What do you think? Isn’t it easier to write code once you understand how it works?” Vita says in one video. With the help of his dad, Zhou Ziheng, he demonstrates how to write codes with Apple-developed Swift Playgrounds, an app teaching kids basic coding through interactive games.
Vita’s celebrity comes as China steps up efforts to become a world leader in artificial intelligence by 2030. The trend of teaching young people to code has been on the rise in recent years, particularly as the Asian giant fights to close the gap in its workforce in the technology sector, most notably AI talent. In November, China’s education ministry updated its curriculum to include books about AI, big data, coding and quantum computing.
A quarter of the 422-page recommended reading list is now about science, math, chemistry, aerospace, medicine and most notably AI.
“Coding’s not that easy but also not that difficult — at least not as difficult as you have imagined,” Vita, who is familiar with Swift, Scratch and C++ languages, told the AFP news agency.
China has a lot of ground to make up on AI, with the number of top researchers in the field standing at one-fifth of that in the United States in 2017, according to research by the Washington-based Center for Data Innovation.
At the same time, it faces a shortage of 5 million AI professionals, according to a 2017 article from the state-owned newspaper People’s Daily.
These disadvantages have not stopped it from setting ambitious targets: The country aims to catch up with the U.S. next year, based on “A Next Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan,” a government blueprint.
In order to close in on the talent gap, the country is now speeding up AI education for children, in addition to efforts to increase the talent base from universities. By 2018, there were 96 Chinese universities with AI-related programs, up from just 19 in 2017.
Despite some shortcomings, a trove of Chinese AI companies such as iFlytek, SenseTime, Cloudwalk and DJI, have caught the world’s attention for standing out in sound recognition, facial recognition and drone technologies. China’s big tech companies, such as Baidu, Tencent, Alibaba and Huawei, also have invested heavily in AI research and development.
A trainer leading a class at a children’s computer coding training center in Beijing on Nov. 8, 2019Wang Zhao / AFP – Getty Images file
Some of those companies have taken a hit in China’s trade war with the U.S., with Washington blocking a few Chinese tech firms from acquiring its most advanced technologies. But experts say the roadblocks are only fueling China’s desire to get ahead.
“The increasingly fierce trade and technology competition between China and the U.S. puts pressure on China to improve its innovative capacity,” said Zhang Xusheng, a science, technology, engineering and math professor at Zhejiang University. “And it naturally means we need to bring the students to study high-tech and be more innovative.”
In 2018, the education ministry added AI to the high school curriculum, encouraging around 25 million teenagers to study the technology. The same year, China’s first AI textbook for high school students — which introduces the basics of image recognition, sound recognition, text recognition and deep learning — was put into use in more than 40 pilot schools.
“I would like to read the books to explore the scientific reasoning behind things like AI, aerospace, programming and big data,” Cui Jingjing, 14, a high school student in Fujian, said. “I am also keen to join science competitions.”
“I think China will win the AI race with the U.S.,” Cui said, “We are catching up very fast.”
China is not alone in ramping up AI education. While the private sector has led the response to AI, governments like France, South Korea and the United States also have strategies in place to expand their workforce in the sector with increased investments, although predominantly at the postsecondary level, according to a 2019 UNESCO report.
Many European Union member states are also reviewing their curricula to integrate more lessons about computational thinking in the classroom. Some countries like Austria, Poland and Lithuania have long provided strong computer science education in high schools.
A pupil reading a book outside a classroom as she waits to attend a class at a children’s computer coding training centre in Beijing on Nov. 8, 2019.Wang Zhao / AFP – Getty Images file
The enthusiasm for AI education goes beyond policy. The market value of the coding industry for children reached around $57 million in 2018 and is expected to surge to around $4.3 billion by 2023, increasing 650 percent in the span of five years, according to a report by iResearch, a Shanghai-based consulting company.
That investment is transforming classrooms. In Shenzhen, China’s tech hub, an AI program for students in grades 3 to 8 was being piloted in 2019.
Zheng Weicheng, a primary school math teacher in Fujian province, thinks that teaching AI also has broader benefits by helping children establish scientific concepts and improve their problem-solving ability, which will directly benefit their future development.
“Well-equipped youths lead to a powerful country,” Zheng said.
Source of the notice: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/china-ramps-tech-education-bid-become-artificial-intelligence-leader-n1107806
For some, school is a harrowing experience that students are forced to relive daily.
The long hours, vast amount of homework, the social pressure to perform academically, bullying, eating alone while others eat in groups, navigating through social cliques and just a general sense of not fitting in are just some of the cocktail of woes that make the experience overwhelming for some youths.
Dreading or hating school is common among some school-going children for various reasons, but the problem arises when students’ performance and mental well-being are affected as a result of attending school.
Are school systems to be blamed or does it suggest a problem with students?
Why students hate school
School can be brutal for students who struggle to fit in. Source: Shutterstock
Last year, a survey of primary school pupils in Hong Kong found that 21.7 percent complained of constant stress; common sources of pressure include too much homework, preparing for secondary school and unsatisfactory academic performance.
The figure was up 5.5 percentage points from a similar poll in 2016 and a three-year high.
Primary school student Javis Leung King-chung can relate.
“I was in school and my teacher said my class was too naughty, so although we started lessons at 7am, we had to stay on to work until 7pm,” the eight-year-old told the South China Morning Post.
“With our shocked looks and disgruntled sounds, the teacher then said we had to stay for 15 more hours. The more startled we became, the more the teacher kept increasing the hours. In the end, we had to stay for three days. I was so scared.”
Back in 2012, The Japan Times reported student Yuki Ujiie’s recollection of junior high school where he was beaten by bullies, ignored by his classmates and forced to eat alone when everyone else lunched in groups. When his teacher suggested that he join a girl’s group during lunchtime, he stopped going to school the very next day.
In a BBC report, 10-year-old Yuta Ito had been reluctantly attending his primary school as he was often bullied and kept fighting with his classmates. After telling his family that he no longer wanted to attend school, his parents sent him to a free school where he’s much happier.
Combatting absenteeism in schools – the rise of free schools in Japan
Many young students in Japan are reportedly refusing to go to school. Source: Shutterstock
A BBC report notes that more and more children are refusing to go to school in Japan, a phenomenon called “futoko”. Futokos are children who don’t go to school for more than 30 days, for reasons unrelated to health or finances, notes Japan’s education ministry.
Absenteeism in schools is rising in the country. On October 17, the government said absenteeism among elementary and junior high school students had hit a record high, with 164,528 children absent for 30 days or more during 2018, up from 144,031 in 2017.
Free schools were established in Japan in the 1980s in response to the growing number of futokos. These alternative schools are not free, but provide students with a more fluid learning environment, bereft of the rigid rules typically associated with Japanese national schools, such as exuding control over students’ appearances.
BBC notes that the number of students attending free or alternative schools instead of regular schools has spiked – from 7,424 in 1992 to 20,346 in 2017.
For example, students enrolled in the Tamagawa Free School in Tokyo don’t need to wear a uniform, are free to choose their activities and are also encouraged to follow their individual skills and interests.
Speaking to the BBC, Takashi Yoshikawa, the head of the school, believes that communication problems are at the root of most students’ refusal to attend school; as such, the school’s purpose is to develop students’ social skills.
This is done through various ways, including exercising, playing games or studying; the important thing is to learn not to panic when students are in a large group.
Meanwhile, Professor Ryo Uchida, an education expert at Nagoya University, said large class sizes can be problematic to pupils. He said comradeship is the key ingredient to surviving life in Japan due to the country’s high population density. Failing to get along and co-ordinate with others lessens one’s chances of survival.
However, the need to conform is a problem for many students who may feel uncomfortable in overcrowded classrooms. Professor Uchida said the support provided by free schools is very meaningful, as they care less about the group and value the thoughts and feelings of each student.
Source of the notice: https://www.studyinternational.com/news/absenteeism-in-schools/
A guard withholds water from a barefoot migrant kneeling in front of him. An emaciated man lies on the ground while a thermostat reads a broiling 43 degrees Celsius. Refugees cower to the ground as bullets whiz by.
These rough pencil sketches by an Eritrean refugee offer a glimpse of the brutal reality of Libya’s migrant detention centers, where thousands have been locked away for months or even years. Most are there after failing to make the perilous crossing to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea.
The artist asked to only be identified by his nickname, Aser, because he fears reprisals from militias for speaking out about what he says are “nightmare conditions” inside the centers. In a country with no functioning government, it is often competing militias who run the detention centers and make money off migrants.
The drawings are based on what Aser, 28, witnessed inside several migrant facilities in Tripoli between September 2017 and October this year. At night, he recalls, he awoke to the sounds of militiamen dragging migrants from their sleep and beating them to get ransoms from their families, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. Guards withheld food, water and medicine for the same reason.
Libya’s migrant detention centers are rife with abuse, and many have gotten caught in the crossfire of the country’s civil war. One drawing depicts refugees in the crossfire between forces of military commander Khalifa Hifter and militias allied with the United Nations-supported government in Tripoli.
Libya became a major crossing point for migrants to Europe after the death of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, but Europe now sends money for Libya to prevent migrants from reaching its shores. With increased reports of torture and abuse inside detention centers, Europe’s policy of supporting the Libyan coast guard as it intercepts fleeing migrants has come under growing criticism.
Aser says that often, the only drinking water available inside the hangars where he was kept was a few buckets of water for hundreds of people. He and others went weeks without seeing sunlight, and the crowded centers became breeding grounds for disease. At the last facility where he was held, Abu Salim, he and another migrant, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said two Eritreans died from what they believed to be tuberculosis.
Aser’s journey began more than four years ago, when he escaped forced military conscription in Eritrea, considered among the world’s most repressive governments. He made his way through Ethiopia and Sudan, and paid $6,000 to traffickers in Libya to secure a place on a boat to Europe. But the vessel was intercepted by the Libyan coast guard.
He ended up in Tripoli in September 2017 and was placed in the first of three centers. Visiting workers from Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, provided him with pencils and paper, and he worked out of the sight of guards. He sometimes hid the drawings with other migrants, and took photos of some sketches before destroying them.
In late October, Aser fled to an already overcrowded United Nations-run facility with hundreds of other detainees. Now his hope is that he can be one of the few to qualify for asylum, who are put on flights via Niger and Rwanda to Europe.
In the meantime, he says, his only escape is art.
“I dream that one day I can move out of Libya to develop my skill by gaining additional education,” he said.
___
This story was first published on Dec. 31, 2019. It was updated on Jan. 2, 2020, to correct that the Eritrean refugee making sketches about migrant detention centers in Libya fled conscription in Eritrea, not Ethiopia.
Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
«The person was my friend and I didn’t expect any of my friends to call me a name,» says nine-year-old Nai’m.
He has experienced racist abuse at primary school five times in a year. It has left his mother, Carla, in tears.
One of the perpetrators is now on a council register for racism, with another facing temporary exclusion.
Primary-school exclusions for racism in England are up more than 40% in just over a decade with the biggest rise in the North West, official figures show.
BBC News analysis of the figures showed:
496 temporary exclusions for racism from primary schools in the academic year 2017-18
a rise of 40% on 2006-07, when there were 350 exclusions
in the North West there were 36 temporary exclusions in 2006-07, compared with 76 in 2017-18
the number of exclusions for racism across all schools in England has fallen over the same period
Nai’m’s story
Media captionNai’m says the racism left him shocked and sad at the same time
Carla, who moved to Manchester from Bermuda three years ago with Nai’m, says she was called by his school and told another pupil had called him «a black midget».
«I was in disbelief. But it did in fact happen, so I was taken aback,» she says.
«Then, three weeks later, I got a call again and his teacher was upset.»
When she went into school to talk to the teacher, Carla broke down in tears.
«I couldn’t believe that children would actually talk like that,» she says.
«He was only eight at the time and shouldn’t have had to endure this type of treatment.»
Nai’m, who plays for his local professional football club’s junior team, says much of the abuse happens on the school pitch.
But being called racist names by a friend left him «a little shocked and sad at the same time».
Another child told him their parents had told them they weren’t allowed to talk to black or brown people.
Carla says the family have a good relationship with the school, which has been working with them to try to halt the abuse.
Nai’m gave a talk to fellow pupils at a special assembly about Bermuda and the school tried to get the parents to meet but some of the perpetrators’ parents refused.
It is up to each individual school to decide how to deal with and whether to document incidents of racism among pupils – the only national figures are those for exclusions and some campaigners say they are just the tip of the iceberg.
Spotting it early
«This is about it being OK to be different,» John Au tells a special assembly at Lawrence Community Primary School, in Liverpool.
He works for the Anthony Walker Foundation, set up after the Huyton teenager’s racially motivated murder, in 2005, to campaign for diversity and inclusion.
The school contacted the charity after staff overheard worrying conversations between pupils.
Image captionJohn Au delivers an assembly at a Liverpool primary school
«It was things like, ‘Go back to your own country,’ because a lot of the children come from different countries,» deputy head Lisa Flanagan says.
«We also heard children talking about the colour of someone’s skin.
«In some instances, pupils were refusing to learn about another religion because they thought they would be betraying their own beliefs.»
Dr Zubaida Haque, deputy director of race-equality think tank the Runnymede Trust, says racism in schools reflects attitudes outside the classroom.
«We have to understand, schools are a microcosm of society,» she says.
«So if we have an increase in hate crime in society, an increase of bigotry or there’s bullying going on outside of school, racism in papers and in a politician’s narrative, children will pick that up very quickly. And that’s what is happening.»
John Au says his organisation has been receiving an increasing number of requests from schools for help.
«Racism and discrimination is a problem that affects the whole of society. It doesn’t matter how old we are,» Mr Au says.
«Schools should be praised for identifying problems. We have to give them credit for that. When teachers spot things early, it stops them from escalating into something else.»
In a statement Nai’m’s primary school said: «The school prides itself in being an inclusive school and will continue to challenge all forms of racism.
«We strongly believe in educating our pupils by teaching them right from wrong, so that they are able to live in harmony with other people regardless of our differences.
«We want children to accept each other and celebrate our diverse school community.
«We are pleased that our families feel supported by staff and that they are positive about the way we deal with incidents when they arise.»
Source of the article: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-50331687
In Japan, more and more children are refusing to go to school, a phenomenon called «futoko». As the numbers keep rising, people are asking if it’s a reflection of the school system, rather than a problem with the pupils themselves.
Ten-year-old Yuta Ito waited until the annual Golden Week holiday last spring to tell his parents how he was feeling – on a family day out he confessed that he no longer wanted to go to school.
For months he had been attending his primary school with great reluctance, often refusing to go at all. He was being bullied and kept fighting with his classmates.
His parents then had three choices: get Yuta to attend school counselling in the hope things would improve, home-school him, or send him to a free school. They chose the last option.
Now Yuta spends his school days doing whatever he wants – and he’s much happier.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionJapanese primary school children (file picture)
Yuta is one of Japan’s many futoko, defined by Japan’s education ministry as children who don’t go to school for more than 30 days, for reasons unrelated to health or finances.
Attitudes to futoko have changed over the decades. Until 1992 school refusal – then called tokokyohi, meaning resistance – was considered a type of mental illness. But in 1997 the terminology changed to the more neutral futoko, meaning non-attendance.
On 17 October, the government announced that absenteeism among elementary and junior high school students had hit a record high, with 164,528 children absent for 30 days or more during 2018, up from 144,031 in 2017.
The free school movement started in Japan in the 1980s, in response to the growing number of futoko. They’re alternative schools that operate on principles of freedom and individuality.
They’re an accepted alternative to compulsory education, along with home-schooling, but won’t give children a recognised qualification.
The number of students attending free or alternative schools instead of regular schools has shot up over the years, from 7,424 in 1992 to 20,346 in 2017.
Dropping out of school can have long-term consequences, and there is a high risk that young people can withdraw from society entirely and shut themselves away in their rooms – a phenomenon known as hikikomori.
In 2016 the rising number of student suicides led the Japanese government to pass a suicide prevention act with special recommendations for schools.
Image copyrightSTEPHANE BUREAU DU COLOMBIERImage captionFree schools set their own rules
So why are so many children avoiding school in Japan?
Family circumstances, personal issues with friends, and bullying are among the main causes, according to a survey by the ministry of education.
In general, the dropouts reported that they didn’t get along with other students, or sometimes with the teachers.
That was also the case for Tomoe Morihashi.
«I didn’t feel comfortable with many people,» says the 12-year-old. «School life was painful.»
Tomoe suffered from selective mutism, which affected her whenever she was out in public.
«I couldn’t speak outside my home or away from my family,» she says.
And she found it hard to obey the rigid set of rules that govern Japanese schools.
«Tights must not be coloured, hair must not be dyed, the colour of hair elastics is fixed, and they must not be worn on the wrist,» she says.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES
Many schools in Japan control every aspect of their pupils’ appearance, forcing pupils to dye their brown hair black, or not allowing pupils to wear tights or coats, even in cold weather. In some cases they even decide on the colour of pupils’ underwear.
Strict school rules were introduced in the 1970s and 1980s in response to violence and bullying. They relaxed in the 1990s but have become more severe recently.
Now Tomoe, like Yuta, attends Tamagawa Free School in Tokyo where students don’t need to wear a uniform and are free to choose their own activities, according to a plan agreed between the school, parents and pupils. They are encouraged to follow their individual skills and interests.
There are rooms with computers for Japanese and maths classes and a library with books and mangas (Japanese comic books).
Image copyrightSTEPHANE BUREAU DU COLOMBIERImage captionStudents can choose what to activities they want to do in free schools
The atmosphere is very informal, like a big family. Students meet in common spaces to chat and play together.
«The purpose of this school is to develop people’s social skills,» says Takashi Yoshikawa, the head of the school.
Whether it’s through exercising, playing games or studying, the important thing is to learn not to panic when they’re in a large group.
The school recently moved to a larger space, and about 10 children attend every day.
Image copyrightSTEPHANE BUREAU DU COLOMBIERImage captionAbout 10 children attend Tamagawa Free School every day
Mr Yoshikawa opened his first free school in 2010, in a three-storey apartment in Tokyo’s residential neighbourhood of Fuchu.
«I expected students over 15 years old, but actually those who came were only seven or eight years old,» he says. «Most were silent with selective mutism, and at school they didn’t do anything.»
Mr Yoshikawa believes that communication problems are at the root of most students’ school refusal.
Image copyrightSTEPHANE BUREAU DU COLOMBIERImage captionTakashi Yoshikawa first opened a free school in 2010
His own journey into education was unusual. He quit his job as a «salary man» in a Japanese company in his early 40s, when he decided he wasn’t interested in climbing the career ladder. His father was a doctor, and like him, he wanted to serve his community, so he became a social worker and foster father.
The experience opened his eyes to the problems children face. He realised how many students suffered because they were poor, or victims of domestic abuse, and how much this affected their performance at school.
Part of the challenge pupils face is the big class sizes, says Prof Ryo Uchida, an education expert at Nagoya University.
«In classrooms with about 40 students who have to spend a year together, many things can happen,» he says.
Prof Uchida says comradeship is the key ingredient to surviving life in Japan because the population density is so high – if you don’t get along and co-ordinate with others, you won’t survive. This not only applies to schools, but also to public transport and other public spaces, all of which are overcrowded.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESImage captionComradeship is key to surviving school
But for many students this need to conform is a problem. They don’t feel comfortable in overcrowded classrooms where they have to do everything together with their classmates in a small space.
«Feeling uncomfortable in such a situation is normal,» says Prof Uchida.
What’s more, in Japan, children stay in the same class from year to year, so if problems occur, going to school can become painful.
«In that sense, the support provided for example by free schools is very meaningful,» Prof Uchida says. «In free schools, they care less about the group and they tend to value the thoughts and feelings of each single student.»
Image copyrightSTEPHANE BUREAU DU COLOMBIERImage captionChildren playing in Tamagawa Free School
But although free schools are providing an alternative, the problems within the education system itself remain an issue. For Prof Uchida, not developing students’ diversity is a violation of their human rights – and many agree.
Criticism of «black school rules» and the Japanese school environment is increasing nationwide. In a recent column the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper described them as a violation of human rights and an obstacle to student diversity.
In August, the campaign group «Black kosoku o nakuso! Project» [Let’s get rid of black school rules!] submitted an online petition to the education ministry signed by more than 60,000 people, asking for an investigation into unreasonable school rules. Osaka Prefecture ordered all of its high schools to review their rules, with about 40% of schools making changes.
Prof Uchida says the education ministry now appears to accept absenteeism not as an anomaly, but a trend. He sees this as a tacit admission that futoko children are not the problem but that they are reacting to an education system that is failing to provide a welcoming environment.
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Media captionThe women trying to coax Japan’s reclusive young men out of their bedrooms.
At least half a million young men in Japan are thought to have withdrawn from society, and refuse to leave their bedrooms. They’re known as hikikomori.
Their families often don’t know what to do, but one organisation is offering «sisters for hire» to help coax these young men out of their isolation.
Source of the article: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50693777
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