By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Nov 27 2000 (IPS)

Plagued with disorder in classrooms, growing drop-out rates, and bullying among students, Japan’s model school system is headed down a bumpy road to major reform.

“Japan is taking school reform very seriously,” says Satoshi Ashidate, head of the education section at the Prime Minister’s Office. “This is because Japanese society is becoming more globalised and the current system does not cater to the nation’s new needs.”

An interim report by a panel of educational experts — and personalities that include prestigious names such as sports stars — has proposed bold changes that cover 17 areas of education covering pre-schoolers to high school students.

“To prepare Japanese children for the 21st century, the main purpose of the reforms is to make school a place that allows students to develop their own personalities,” Ashidate explains in an interview.

“Japanese education up to now has placed too much emphasis on learning, a system that has suppressed a child’s creativeness,” he adds.

In a bid to wean the education system away from traditional bookishness, the proposed reforms include a more flexible curriculum, the inclusion of community work in the regular curriculum, longer time for ethics study, and a new focus on Japanese history and culture in a bid to renew Japanese identity.

In addition, the Education Ministry reports that funds for the teaching of information technology, opportunities for learning outside the classroom, and greater acceptance of foreign students will be introduced in the new school system.

Already, some of these reforms have taken place. In April, Tokyo’s Shinagawa municipality became the first area in Japan to introduce a system where children no longer have to attend the nearest public primary school — as was required until then, and can go to a school of their choice.

This change created quite a sensation in Japan. After all, it marked a major shift for a country where bureaucrats have created an education system designed to produce millions of hardworking, loyal employees who turned Japan’s war-torn economy into the second-largest in the world.

But although they welcome several of these reforms, critics argue that they will not actually help to solve some of the more pressing problems in Japanese schools, such as drop-outs and absences.

In 1999, official figures show, the number of elementary and junior high school students absent from school for more than 30 days was 130,208, up from 126,692 reported the year before.

This is because “the reforms do not take into consideration the viewpoints of children,” says Keiko Okuchi, head of Tokyo Shule, a ‘free school’ that opened here 15 years ago and uses a teaching system radically different from the traditional one.

For instance, critics of the school reforms, which include parents, question the wisdom of the move by the education ministry to make community service compulsory for primary and middle-school students.

The proposal suggests that schoolchildren live together for two weeks and perform community service, and that high school students be required to serve one year in such areas as farming, forest management and caring for the elderly.

But though the aim of the proposal may be to involve youngsters in his or her larger community, it does not sit well with many students.

Nineteen-year-old Kenichi Tanaka, who attends Tokyo Shule after dropping out of school seven years ago, says he resents the idea of being forced to do community work.

“If the point of getting kids to do community work is to instill the spirit of volunteer work in them, then what’s the point of forcing that work on them?” asks Tanaka.

Tanaka says he chafed at a regimented school culture, which is why he shifted to Tokyo Schule, where there is no set curriculum or fixed timetable. Teachers instruct students at their pace of learning, on subjects ranging from language, mathematics and a variety of activities such as arts, sports and construction.

But Atsushi Inaba, an official at the Education Ministry, defends the programme and says community work is like other subjects such as mathematics and language, that children are required to study.

“I think the entrance of community work in the school curriculum must be considered a new subject,” he says.

He explains that this new approach to education was suggested because Japanese children do not help their parents in housework, and are also not taught in their families to participate in social services.

In an editorial in September, the newspaper ‘Mainichi Shinbun’ welcomed the proposed changes in the educational system but pointed out that the move to separate “problem” children from the rest of the class, effectively slams the door on these youngsters.

The newspaper also says there was not enough debate on the reforms, pointing out that the proposals have not been discussed by different sectors of Japanese society.

Okuchi cannot agree more. She says the point of the reforms must be to build a trusting relationship between teachers and students, not increase subjects that only force children to follow new things.

Sumiko Terada, a social worker and former public school teacher, explains that children feel they are forced to go to school in Japanese society. This attitude must be changed, if school is to become fun again.

“Children refuse to go to school or become violent in school because there are too many rules they must follow,” she says.

Despite the criticism about the latest educational reforms though, there is no doubt that the increasing call for school reform is a positive one in Japan.

Even teachers themselves are say it is time society learned from its youngsters. In October, the Japan Teachers Union adopted an appeal calling on all teachers to launch school reforms by making teaching more interactive and fully heeding the views of students.

Excerpt: