A program launched by the Saitama Prefectural Government for children of impoverished families is drawing much attention as a way to break the link — or even chain — between poverty and low academic achievement.
The program involves retired school teachers, social welfare counselors and university student volunteers, who teach middle school students from families on public welfare, after school, one on one, for free.
"What shall we study today?" Isao Shiratori, a 67-year-old retired high school teacher, asks one of the students after sitting down beside him, in a rented room at a nursing home for the elderly, for a typical tutoring session.