Schools revisit Saturday classes amid college worries

By CARL FREIRE
The Associated Press

Just four years ago, the high-pressure public school system moved to lighten the burden on young students by eliminating Saturday classes and going to a five-day schedule.
Now, some schools are saying five days are not enough.

Under pressure to better prepare students for university, two Tokyo-area high schools this week announced they would go back to a six-day week when the new school year starts in April.
The move reflects growing concern among parents and students that public school standards might be damaged by recent reforms aimed at easing pressure on students and fostering creativity.

"We want to be certain to improve the academic abilities of our students," said Yukio Otani, principal of Omiya High School in Saitama Prefecture. "We also want those students to be able to follow the career path they desire."

The public school week was cut to five days in 2002. Other steps in recent years include shortening textbooks, reducing workloads and giving students school credit for private tutoring lessons.

Officials in Saitama and media reports say that other public schools around the country are moving back to six-day weeks, although the education ministry says it doesn't track such data.
Many students at the two Saitama schools are on a college track, prefectural education official Junichi Asaumi said. Some students, along with their parents, asked for the Saturday classes as a supplement to better their performance, he said.

Asaumi, however, said the return to a six-day week would be partial. The Saturday sessions will be held every other week and be open to parents and guardians to see what their children are learning, rather than full-blown study periods, he said.

"We need to keep the needs and wishes of the students and their parents in mind," Asaumi said.
Some parents also fear children in less rigorous public schools will fall behind those at private schools, which have retained the six-day formula, said Yoshio Kato of the Saitama Parent-Teacher Association.

"Public school fees may be less expensive, but parents don't want to see a big gap in the education that children receive," he said.
The national school system has been credited with producing the generations of well-educated, capable workers who powered the country's spectacular economic growth in the decades after World War II.

But concerns have grown over the past 20 years that the system imposes too much pressure on children, contributing to student burnout, bullying and rising numbers of children who refuse to go to school.

While some of the changes implemented in recent years -- the five-day week was instituted in 2002 -- have eased students' workload, a child's academic standing is still largely determined by performance on difficult standardized tests.

With parental and student anxieties over university entrance exams showing no signs of abating, more and more public schools may be forced to consider bending the policy, officials say.

"We have to take into account the characteristics of each school and its student body," Asaumi said. "College-bound students want to be prepared to pursue their chosen path."

The Japan Times: Feb. 23, 2006
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20060223f1.html