Tag - schools

 
 

SCHOOLS

While the government aims to supply all public elementary school pupils with an electronic device for learning in school, communication between parents and teachers is still largely paper-based.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Jun 17, 2024
Parents need digital tools to cope with 'first-grade barrier'
More flexibility and efficiency would lighten the load put on the families of public elementary school children, where paper-based communication is still too prevalent.
Takayuki Midorikawa stands in front of Ueda Junior High School in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
Jun 17, 2024
Fukushima schools open up to revising old rules
The prefecture has recently made some moves to accommodate a little more diversity in the classroom.
A "free school" in Tokyo's Kita Ward. In April, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government began providing subsidies to students attending free schools.
JAPAN / Society
Jun 14, 2024
Local subsidies for Japan's 'free schools' highlight regional inequality
Support groups are calling for uniform financial assistance nationwide for institutions aimed at those who have left mainstream schooling.
A survey has shown that 722 municipalities in Japan had made school lunch services free of charge as of September 2023. Of those, 547 provided such services at all elementary and junior high schools.
JAPAN
Jun 12, 2024
Free school lunches offered in 40% of Japanese municipalities
Many places said that they wanted to reduce financial burdens on households through the initiative.
People wade through a flooded road in Balagtas, Bulacan province, Philippines, on July 29, 2023.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
Jun 12, 2024
Hell or high water: Filipino schools lashed by climate extremes
The state weather bureau has said the country is likely to experience more tropical cyclones in 2024 due to the potential return of the La Nina weather phenomenon.
An 84-year-old man has been arrested after missing a red light and hitting a girl with his car in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jun 5, 2024
Saitama police arrest elderly man after hitting first grader with car
Hideo Aoki, arrested on suspicion of negligent driving resulting in injury, has admitted to the charge, according to police.
A child holds a sign during a rally demanding the release of Israeli hostages outside the U.S. consulate in Tel Aviv on Monday.
WORLD
Jun 4, 2024
Back to class — or shelters? Next school year snags Israel's Lebanon strategy
Of 60,000 civilians relocated from northern Israel at the outset of the war, 14,600 are children, scattered in temporary kindergartens and schools.
The mother of a student killed in a 2017 avalanche prays for her son at her home in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, earlier this month.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 30, 2024
Three sentenced to two years in prison over 2017 avalanche deaths
The defendants guilty of professional negligence resulting in death and injury.
Those who will be employed as teachers in Japan after completing graduate school will be exempt from repaying scholarship loans.
JAPAN / Society
May 29, 2024
Japan to waive graduate scholarship loan repayments for teachers
The policy will apply to those who pass the recruitment examinations in the current fiscal year ending in March 2025.
Language support groups in Fukushima Prefecture are calling for the creation of a better environment for foreign children to learn Japanese.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Fukushima
May 27, 2024
With more foreign children, Fukushima struggles with language support
A number of children attending schools in the prefecture in fiscal 2023 were unable to fully understand Japanese.
The Japanese government updated its English education guidelines in 2017 to emphasize communication over grammar and memorization. Public school teachers are incredibly busy, however, which means schools haven’t been able to implement changes uniformly. Private and alternative schools are attempting to remedy this.
LIFE / Language / Longform
May 27, 2024
The language of opportunity: Bilingual education is on the rise in Japan
Stuck with a reputation for poor English, Japan is pushing its next generation to be bilingual. Privately run schools are seeing the benefits.
A bill on checking sex crime records of people seeking jobs involving contacts with children passes the Lower House on Thursday.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 23, 2024
Lower House OKs bill to create Japanese version of DBS
The bill aimed at preventing sexual offenses against children was approved unanimously at a plenary meeting.
Smoke billows following Israeli strikes on the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) on October 11, 2023.
WORLD / Society
May 13, 2024
Gazans strive to study as war shatters education system
The U.N. estimates that 72.5% of schools in Gaza will need full reconstruction or major rehabilitation.
An education ministry survey has shown that the English proficiency of public junior and senior high school students in Japan is continuing to improve.
JAPAN
May 9, 2024
Japanese students' English proficiency is improving
The levels of English skills greatly varied depending on the region, according to the education ministry.
(From left) Nanami Fukuoka, Natsumi Matsunaga and Riana Tashima, students from Denshukan High School in Yanagawa, Fukuoka Prefecture, and Mutsumi Machitori, their teacher, show their research in late March.
JAPAN / History / Regional Voices: Kyushu
May 6, 2024
Students in Fukuoka learn of school's tragic past in World War II
After investigating a cenotaph at their school, pupils researched 17 alumni who died at a nearby munitions factory.
Students can learn faster by using tablets in the classroom. In Malawi, every dollar spent on this type of learning delivers over $100 worth of higher productivity in the long term.
COMMENTARY / World
May 3, 2024
The policies that deliver the most bang for a government's buck
Instead of making many grand promises, governments should prioritize smart policies that yield the highest returns, such as tablets in schools.
Jalian Mangampo (right) does homework while her younger brother Sherwin browses his phone at their house in Manila on Sunday.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
May 3, 2024
Kids study in overheated slum as Philippines shuts schools
The Philippines closed over 47,000 schools as temperatures in Manila hit a record 38.8 degrees Celsius, with over 7,000 remaining shut on Thursday.
Children hold cork sheets to cover them from the sun while walking along a street during a countrywide heat wave in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Sunday.
ENVIRONMENT / Climate change
May 1, 2024
Extreme heat is closing schools, widening learning gaps worldwide
Many countries experiencing heat waves are torn between closing schools or leaving them open, both of which negatively affect children's learning.
Filipino parents and children. In public schools in Metro Manila, a survey of more than 8,000 teachers last month showed 87% of students had suffered from heat-related conditions.
ASIA PACIFIC / Society
Apr 25, 2024
First COVID, now heat: Online schooling returns to the Philippines
Pupils at 7,000 public schools in the country were sent home last week due to unusually hot weather.
A woman in the Tokai region posts her meals on social media and gives advice to young people suffering from eating disorders.
JAPAN / Science & Health / Regional voices: Chubu
Apr 22, 2024
Woman with eating disorder looks to help young sufferers via social media
The woman is letting people know that a person’s value is not determined by their body shape.

Longform

Traditional folk rituals like Mizudome-no-mai (dance to stop the rain) provide a sense of agency to a population that feels largely powerless in the face of the climate crisis.
As climate extremes intensify, Japan embraces ancient weather rituals