The way the article talked about these rising numbers with the tone of a crisis made me curious about how these numbers looked for the American education system. It looks like in 2018, the number...
The way the article talked about these rising numbers with the tone of a crisis made me curious about how these numbers looked for the American education system. It looks like in 2018, the number of elementary and middle school aged children (7-13) that were not enrolled in school was about 660,000. Source here (sorry for the excel source). Japan has a population of about 120 million compared to America’s 310 million, so it does seem like the US has a much bigger “problem“ in this area.
That said, it seems like home schooling is much less accepted in Japan than it is in the US, which is probably in large part why this is more concerning there than here (Japan’s numbers are also rising, while the US numbers seem to be relatively stable). Still, the comparison seems interesting.
Just to have context, there are over 1 million new entrants for the elementary schools every year in Japan and over 3 million total number of students....
It's surprising to me that Japanese children can actually win this battle. I always thought the Japanese were strict disciplinarians. I also refused to go to school, but was forced to do so by any...
It's surprising to me that Japanese children can actually win this battle. I always thought the Japanese were strict disciplinarians. I also refused to go to school, but was forced to do so by any means necessary.
On 17 October, the government announced that absenteeism among elementary and junior high school students had hit a record high, with 164,528 children absent for 30 days or more during 2018, up from 144,031 in 2017.
The free school movement started in Japan in the 1980s, in response to the growing number of futoko. They're alternative schools that operate on principles of freedom and individuality.
They're an accepted alternative to compulsory education, along with home-schooling, but won't give children a recognised qualification.
The number of students attending free or alternative schools instead of regular schools has shot up over the years, from 7,424 in 1992 to 20,346 in 2017.
The way the article talked about these rising numbers with the tone of a crisis made me curious about how these numbers looked for the American education system. It looks like in 2018, the number of elementary and middle school aged children (7-13) that were not enrolled in school was about 660,000. Source here (sorry for the excel source). Japan has a population of about 120 million compared to America’s 310 million, so it does seem like the US has a much bigger “problem“ in this area.
That said, it seems like home schooling is much less accepted in Japan than it is in the US, which is probably in large part why this is more concerning there than here (Japan’s numbers are also rising, while the US numbers seem to be relatively stable). Still, the comparison seems interesting.
Just to have context, there are over 1 million new entrants for the elementary schools every year in Japan and over 3 million total number of students. https://www.mext.go.jp/en/publication/statistics/title01/detail01/1373636.htm#02
It's surprising to me that Japanese children can actually win this battle. I always thought the Japanese were strict disciplinarians. I also refused to go to school, but was forced to do so by any means necessary.
Considering the economic conditions Japan has faced recently they would probably need to let go of anything like that.
From the article: