17th October 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The Japanese government are investing in large tutoring projects throughout the country in a bid to stop falling standards in their education system. This follows years of ‘yutori kyoiku’, a pressure free education policy that allowed students much more free time away from their studies. It’s now believed that this policy has led to the poor academic achievements in the country recently.
Contracted tutors are now being introduced into public schools, and in the municipality of Kaiseimachi alone, the budget for the tuition scheme is 4.18 million yen. The town has signed a contract with LFA (Learning For All), who supply teachers to the Bunmei middle school. They claim that the scheme is working, and one tutor, Yuka Shikina, says that a student of hers recently asked for harder questions when, only 7 days before, the same student didn’t understand the sum -1 + -2 = -3.
Lots of middle schools have welcomed the extra help from tutors, because the government’s new guidelines expect much higher standards from students, and it would be incredibly difficult to meet the new standards without extra tuition. It’s felt that far too many children are classified at level 1 when aged 15, and the government believe that these students will not go on to further study, and will have trouble fitting into society.