Japanese language education

Japan: Gov’t seeks more inclusive education for foreign children

Noticias

Asia/ Japan/ 07.07:2020: Source: english.kyodonews.net.

 

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

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School attendance unclear for over 21,000 foreign children in Japan: survey

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Asia/ Japan/ 01.10.2019/ Source: mainichi.jp.

– Local governments cannot confirm whether some 17% of elementary and junior high school-age foreign children registered as residents in Japan are attending school, an education ministry survey released on Sept. 27 has shown.

The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology conducted a survey this past May and June on whether 124,049 school-age children of foreign nationality registered as residents in 1,741 cities, towns, villages and wards across the country as of May 1 this year were attending school. The ministry also looked into the situations of Japanese-language education for school-age foreign children in these municipalities as of May 1 last year.

The survey results show local bodies cannot confirm whether 21,701 children, or about 17.5% of the total, are attending school.

Among these children, local governments are unsure whether 18,654 are attending school for reasons such as the children not being at their registered residences. For another 3,047 of the children, it is unclear whether they are attending school because they have moved out or left the country or are planning to do so. About 1,000 children are not attending any school, the survey shows.

In particular, there are numerous children in urban areas where local bodies cannot confirm their attendance at school. Tokyo has the largest number of such children at 8,040, followed by Kanagawa Prefecture south of Tokyo at 2,382, the central Japan prefecture of Aichi at 1,999, Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo at 1,564 and the western Japan prefecture of Osaka at 1,516.

Municipalities have confirmed that 101,399 of the school-age children of foreign nationality are attending schools across the country. Of them, 96,395 are enrolled in public or private schools and special needs schools, while 5,004 children are attending schools for foreign nationals and other similar institutions.

The survey also revealed that many local bodies have failed to extend adequate assistance to foreign school-age children. Of the municipalities surveyed, 65.3% replied that they have not taken any particular measure to support foreign school-age children whose school attendance they cannot confirm. A total of 17% answered that they visit the homes of children who they cannot confirm are attending school to ascertain the children’s whereabouts and provide information on school enrollment, while 16.5% call the homes of school-age children if they are unsure whether the children are attending school. Some 12.3% responded that they continually send documents on school enrollment to the homes of such children.

Under Japan’s Constitution, Japanese nationals are obligated to make sure that their children of compulsory education age attend school, and local boards of education are supposed to investigate the whereabouts of schoolchildren who have been absent from school for long periods or whose whereabouts cannot be confirmed.

However, since the parents and guardians of non-Japanese nationals of compulsory school age have no obligation to send their children to school, the question of how to respond to such children who cannot be confirmed to be attending school is left to the discretion of local bodies.

In some cases, foreign children who have been absent from school for a long period are removed from registers or simply abandoned.

In the survey, a record 50,759 children across the country were deemed to need Japanese-language education — an increase of 6,812 from the previous survey in 2016. Of these, 40,485 were foreign nationals and 10,274 were Japanese. These children include 11,008 who cannot receive Japanese language lessons.

A separate survey that the Mainichi Shimbun conducted this past January on 100 municipalities that have large foreign populations showed that it was unclear whether some 16,000 foreign children were attending school, prompting the ministry to launch a nationwide survey.

Source of the notice: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20190927/p2a/00m/0na/011000c

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Japanese language education vital for foreign residents to adjust to society

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Asia/ Japan/ 04.03.2019/ Source: the-japan-news.com.

In preparation for an increase in foreign workers, it is indispensable to improve Japanese language education for them. The building of a relevant framework, such as establishing bases for study and ensuring the quality of instructors, must be accelerated.

The new types of residence status for “designated skills” will be established in April, with up to 340,000 foreign workers expected to be accepted into the country over the next five years.

It is necessary to encourage them to adjust smoothly to local communities and workplaces. While rooting out bureaucratic sectionalism at the ministries and agencies, the central government should take measures to support foreign workers, in cooperation with local governments and companies that will accept them. A situation in which foreigners form their own groups of compatriots and become socially isolated should be avoided.

The acquisition of Japanese language skills is key to their smooth adjustment. To obtain the new status, they need to attain the level of Japanese language necessary for daily living. It is important to enhance their language ability, even after their arrival in Japan, with the cooperation of their workplaces.

There are about 2,100 bases for foreigners living in Japan to learn the Japanese language, such as language schools and classes run by nonprofit organizations and local governments. But they are unevenly located, with many of them in urban areas, while about 60 percent of the local governments of cities, wards, towns and villages in the country have no such facilities.

Concern cannot be dispelled that foreign workers will flow out of rural areas into urban areas where wages are relatively high. Having no places for learning Japanese language may impede their settlement in rural areas.

Ensure quality teaching

To eliminate areas devoid of language-learning facilities, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry will assign coordinators to prefectural governments and ordinance-designated major cities, starting in fiscal 2019. They are tasked with crafting educational programs suited to local communities, while giving advice and guidance to local classes of Japanese language. Such endeavors should be promoted steadily.

The utilization of public-run evening junior high schools is also important. Originally, the evening classes were attended mainly by Japanese people who for a variety of reasons had not completed their compulsory education. But now foreigners account for 80 percent of the students.

In expectation of an increase in foreign manpower, the government aims at increasing evening school courses, which are currently available at 31 schools in Tokyo and seven other prefectures, by having them established in all the prefectures. Financial support should be advanced in a carefully planned way.

Ensuring the quality of education should not be forgotten. The Cultural Affairs Agency will establish a qualification for teachers of Japanese language. Requiring teaching practice in the training stage is also being discussed. A challenge will be to secure schools where trainees can engage in practice teaching, and to work out the content of practice teaching programs.

Sound management of Japanese language schools is also important. How should these facilities be urged to improve themselves, where the attendance rate of students is low and the performances of language proficiency tests are poor? A framework to check them effectively is essential.

It is indispensable to take care of children who are unable to fully understand classes given in Japanese. The number of such children has reached a total of 44,000 in elementary, junior high and senior high schools, up 70 percent over the past 10 years.

Many of them are elementary and junior high schools with fewer than five such students, making it difficult to give lessons efficiently. There are cases where a teacher who can offer Japanese language instruction circulates among different schools. There are also local governments that offer language programs intensively for a certain period, by having such students gather in one place.

By referring to these examples, meticulous guidance should be expanded.

 

Source of the notice: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0005582463

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