Improving schooling for young foreign students

More than 2 million foreigners live in Japan--a figure corresponding to the population of Tochigi Prefecture. Moreover, about 70,000 non-Japanese children attend public schools in this country. Approximately 20,000 of them need Japanese-language instruction, and their number is increasing every year.

I am in charge of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry's education policy for foreign children studying at public schools. Specifically, I carry out operations that include the development and dissemination of Japanese as a Second Language (JSL) curriculum--methods of teaching Japanese to children who use it as their second language--evaluating the circumstances of children who are not attending school, and promoting school enrollment.

From my experience related to the teaching of foreign schoolchildren, I would like to share a number of perspectives and thoughts concerning the problems foreigners face in Japan.

First is the idea that "if the adult life isn't stable, children's education won't be stable, either." This is especially applicable to the problems related to the education of children of newcomers to Japan--whose numbers have dramatically increased since the 1980s and particularly since 1990, when the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law was put into force, resulting in greater numbers of people of Japanese descent from South America coming here.

Many newcomer households have both parents or guardians working long hours for low wages. Therefore, when the children return home from school, there is no parent to look after them, and they are left alone. Moreover, there are also youngsters who are sometimes forced to stay away from school in order to take care of their younger siblings.

Japanese schools have a tradition of teachers paying guidance visits to the homes of their students periodically or when necessity arises. Consequently, in consideration of the parents' working hours, school teachers must make visits to homes of such foreign children to give individual advice and guidance late at night or on holidays. Furthermore, sometimes because the parents do not speak Japanese, the teacher may have to go to the extra trouble of bringing along an interpreter when visiting such a household.

Upon viewing this sort of situation, I have keenly felt the need to provide Japanese-language instruction to the parents of such children, and I think we must also consider their working and living conditions, too. Some other countries, when accepting foreign residents, offer language instruction as well as explanations about national culture, history and other information.

Examples found in nations with a long history of admitting foreign residents can probably serve as references.

Next is the social responsibility of companies regarding issues related to foreigners. Many newcomers work for firms that recruit staff from employment agencies and so do not receive direct payments from their employers. I feel that the companies that hire foreigners and the industries those firms are a part of should exercise greater social responsibility as the entities that hire and profit from foreign workers, in addition to the other social responsibilities relating to their particular fields of activity.

On top of that, support from foreigners' native countries seems necessary. Requests for assistance for schools teaching children of Latin American origin have been made by the local governing bodies of localities where many Latinos live. If there were assistance from the countries concerned, it would be easier to operate schools for foreign children and that would, in turn, be favorable to the schoolchildren's parents.

In the case of the government, from the standpoint of providing, to the extent it is possible, an education equivalent to that offered in Japan to Japanese of compulsory education age who are living overseas, it has been providing various kinds of assistance to schools teaching Japanese children in other countries, including dispatching teachers and arranging educational materials.

On the same basis, we have, for example, lately been consulting with the Brazilian government through diplomatic channels to ensure that appropriate support is offered by that nation for Brazilian children in Japan.

It seems likely Japanese society from now on will be pressed with a need for Japanese and non-Japanese people to coexist and also to construct a society where diverse cultures can coexist.

Coexistence can be realized when mutually autonomous subjects face each other with a spirit of independence. When foreigners live in Japan, they must naturally pay such things as taxes and social insurance, and abide by the regulations of the area where they reside. I believe that when considering various new policies, it will be necessary to formulate them based on the standpoint of coexistence and independence. Tezuka is director of the International Education Division of the Education, Science and Technology Ministry. After serving as director of the Refugee Assistance Division of the Foreign Ministry, consul of the Consulate General of Japan in Hong Kong, and director of the Domestic Public Relations Division of the ministry, Tezuka assumed his present position in July 2005.
(Jan. 11, 2007)

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20070111TDY04002.htm