The number of truant elementary and junior high school students in Japan is also the highest ever recorded.
MEXT
When the Ministry of Education said “pass the baton,” some folks threw it in the trash instead.
The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology says that in three years teachers might get their holidays to themselves.
Earlier this year, news of a letter sent to presidents of national universities—purportedly telling them to get rid of or modify their humanities departments to better “benefit” Japanese society—spread across the Internet. Since then, it has even been picked up by some high-profile English sites, with considerable (and understandable) consternation. And you can believe there were academics in Japan who were incensed at the idea as well.
But is it actually going to happen? It turns out the short answer is a weak “probably not.” The long answer, though, is a bit more complicated.
Have you ever thought about where you’d like to be born if you were reincarnated? It may be an odd question, but in Japan this has been asked every five years to citizens around the country since Showa 28 (1953). It seems like a pretty unassuming survey, but it appears to be a cleverly phrased poll that is able to determine how the citizens really feel about their home country.
What better way to find out if Japan is doing right by their youth, by asking them if they’d be willing to do it all over again! Find out what they learned after the jump.
In a review of the current five-day school week currently being used in public schools across Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said it is considering Saturday classes and a re-introduction of the six-day school week that was phased out between 1992 and 2002.
New curriculum guidelines mandating increased classroom hours resulting from a re-examination of the Ministry’s Yutori Kyoiku, (pressure-free education) program were introduced to elementary schools last year, and fully implemented in junior high schools this year. In seeking the use of Saturdays, the Ministry hopes to improve the academic ability of the nation’s youth by securing more teaching hours. It also hopes to dispel concerns of a widening “education gap” between public schools and private schools, many of which continue to implement Saturday classes.
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