Changing "part-time system" Learning place for people with roots in foreign countries January 11, 19:55

“A school where students study while working” Many

people may have such an image of a part-time high school at night.

However, in Aichi Prefecture, its presence is increasing as a place for students with foreign roots to learn.

How do you respond to students' desire to learn?

Find out from on-site interviews.

(Nagoya Broadcasting Station Reporter Moe Sasaki)

4 classes from 5:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Toyota West High School in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture.

At 5:00 p.m., the students started coming to school one after another.

Evening students take four classes until 9:00 pm.

Unlike full-time courses, many students graduate in four years.

One of the characteristics of the class is that it creates a sense of unity like a family because the same members stay together for four years.

"I want to learn Japanese slowly and carefully"

One of the students, 17-year-old Elias Akamine.

Her father is Bolivian, her mother is Brazilian, and they speak Spanish, Portuguese and English at home.

She came to Japan four years ago, and although she started attending junior high school, she did not understand Japanese and had a painful experience.

She decided to study for high school while taking time to learn Japanese, so she enrolled in a part-time night school.

During the day she is self-studying Japanese.

Ms. Elias Akamine:

"At first, I couldn't understand anything at junior high school. I was very sad because I couldn't understand what my teacher said or what my friends said. So I chose a place where I could study and commute by myself.”

Nearly half of the students have foreign roots

Toyota West High School has 87 students who attend the night time course, and nearly half of these students have foreign roots.

In the prefecture's nighttime part-time system, the ratio is on the rise, and there are schools that reach 60%.

Some of these students are working while re-learning.

Bruna Asato, 34 years old.

She came to Japan with her Japanese-Brazilian parents when she was three years old and has traveled back and forth between Japan and Brazil.

She didn't finish high school because she started working at 16.

While raising two children, she works as an interpreter during the day and studies for college at night.

Asato Bruna:

"People at work asked me, 'Would you like to go to college?', but I was told, 'I haven't graduated from high school, so I have to go to high school first,' so I'm attending. I'm getting older, and I thought that I would never be able to study again, and I'm very lucky to be able to balance my work with my work."

Part-time system A place to meet new needs

Part-time work was institutionalized after the war in order to secure the opportunity to receive high school education while working.

In 1955, there were more than 3,000 schools across the country, including "daytime fixed-time classes" where classes are held for several hours during the day, but the number has been steadily decreasing since then.

In 2018, it decreased to 639 schools, and recently, some schools have abolished the part-time system in various places.

On the other hand, the situation in Aichi Prefecture is in contrast.

As of the end of June 2022, Aichi Prefecture has 280,912 foreign residents, the second largest in Japan after Tokyo.

In the evening part-time program, the number of students receiving learning support in their mother tongue, including students of Japanese nationality, increased from 122 in 2012 to 466 in 2021.

The evening part-time program is a place to meet the needs of these students who have roots in foreign countries and want to graduate from high school while learning Japanese.

Difficulty of Japanese language education

However, the issue is Japanese language education.

Asato, who has worked as an interpreter for her for many years, says she is worried about reading and writing Japanese.

Ms. Bruna Asato:

“Most of them are things I studied on my own, and I mainly learned kanji by watching subtitles on TV. I still have a hard time because there are other readings and I don't have a specific meaning."

The students attending Toyota Nishi High School have roots all over the world, including Brazil, the Philippines, Nepal, Bolivia, Peru, and China.

Therefore, their mother tongues are different, and their proficiency in Japanese is also different.

The degree of understanding of the content learned before high school is also not constant.

Although there are support staff who use each student's native language to support school life, students are only given learning support twice a week before class.

On a day-to-day basis, teachers are also responsible for teaching the Japanese language, but even Japanese teachers are not specialized in teaching Japanese, and they say that they find it difficult.

Yohei Suzuki, a Japanese language teacher

: “I don’t have a hard time communicating, but when it comes to learning, I need to learn Japanese culture and the vocabulary of living in Japan. It takes a long time to explain the differences in emotions, such as "satisfied" and "good at it," to children from different cultures, so there are different difficulties."

Aichi Prefectural Board of Education Takes New Initiatives to Enhance Japanese Language Education

In light of this situation, the Aichi Prefectural Board of Education has clarified its policy to proceed with school reforms, including the enhancement of Japanese language education.

One of them is the establishment of a night junior high school.

First, in April 2025, we will establish a night junior high school at a technical high school in Toyohashi City, which has the second largest number of foreigners in the prefecture after Nagoya City.

In addition to aiming to acquire basic Japanese before entering high school, we will also support re-learning for those who graduated from junior high school without receiving sufficient compulsory education.

Although there is no fixed number of students for the evening junior high school, it is assumed that it will be a small school with about 10 students per grade.

In the future, we are considering setting up in other areas where there are many foreigners, and Toyota West High School is also a candidate school.

Furthermore, there is also a plan to strengthen Japanese language education outside of school through cooperation between the government and the private sector.

That is the “Future School for Young People and Foreigners”.

There are 9 locations in the prefecture, and NPOs and others provide learning support, including Japanese language education.

In the future, we are considering strengthening cooperation with part-time high schools around the country and providing Japanese language instruction before classes.

"Comprehensive education beyond Japanese instruction"

Experts familiar with the education of foreigners evaluate Aichi's reforms as an initiative that will lead to the future, as the number of people with foreign roots who settle in Japan is increasing nationwide.

Gunei Sato, Specially Appointed Professor, School of Global Japanese Studies, Meiji University:

“How to guarantee basic learning is a big issue going forward, and in that sense, Aichi Prefecture’s attempt is a big step forward. , I can appreciate the very attitude of working towards the first step towards coexistence.”

On the other hand, Specially Appointed Professor Sato emphasizes that "comprehensive education that goes beyond Japanese language instruction" is necessary for the reform to produce results.

Specially Appointed Professor Sato

: “Vocabulary is important in language learning, but if only things like vocabulary are emphasized in learning, language skills will not follow. The more important it is to find a way to create tools for children to understand the lessons.While ensuring proper Japanese language instruction, it is like a "comprehensive social studies" that combines Japanese language instruction and subjects. How to organize the curriculum, such as 'citizenship education' and 'career education', which is how to raise people as citizens, is a fairly big issue."

Specially Appointed Professor Sato asks how Aichi Prefecture has many foreigners and students with foreign roots, and how to support the learning of diverse students in public education as a whole, including full-time courses as well as night classes. He points out that some considerations are urgent.

Can we expand the possibilities of diverse students?

How can we support the learning of diverse students and their future employment and career development?

In Aichi Prefecture, from April onwards, we will begin full-scale discussions toward the realization of the part-time system reform.

There are voices from the school side that they hope that the evening part-time system will become a place where each student with roots in a foreign country can support their dreams more strongly.

Deputy Principal Ken Iyoda, Part-time Course

“It must have been difficult for you to start your life in an unknown country and go to elementary and junior high school without knowing the language. Including this, I would like you to spend your time in a way that gives you hope for the future as you continue to live in Japan. increase"

Pursuing the dream of going to university

Mr. Elias Akamine, who was impressed by the way he enthusiastically attended the class.

Unlike when she was in middle school, she has steadily acquired Japanese and is now making her efforts while attending cram school toward her dream of entering university.

Through her club activities, she discovered badminton, which she is passionate about, and said that she was able to have a dream because she felt a sense of fulfillment in her school life.

Elias Akamine

"I want to go to university, go to the national badminton tournament, and then the Olympics and world tournaments. I want to study five subjects such as mathematics, not just Japanese. I also love it, so I want to go to university and study astronomy.”

Through this interview, I felt the students' strong desire to learn, including Mr. Akamine, who had a hard time in junior high school but found his dream in the night school.

That is why I hope that the reforms that will be materialized in the future will meet the needs of each individual child as much as possible.

Nagoya Broadcasting Station Reporter

Moe Sasaki Joined the station

in 2019 After being in charge of

the Nagoya station

police, he will be in charge of Aichi prefectural government from 2022.