12/12/2002
Mariko Furukawa
The problems with Juku and what juveniles need
A survey that was carried out in 2000 indicated that 36.7% of elementary students and 75.8% of junior high school students go to juku. Juku is a private cram school that is supposed to cultivate students' academic skills. However, the aforementioned situation seems to be causing some problems in terms of money, students' academic skills and their lifestyle. (be more specific!)
First of all, the expensive tuition is one that offers a burden on a family budget. Despite the high tuition, students are not learning worth it (?). Some statistics are showing that Japanese students tend not to be good at solving problems by themselves. Furthermore, since juku is like an additional school, students who do the work from juku, develop a tendency not to do their regular school work. On the other hand, the students who industriously deal with both homework end up not having enough free time for themselves, which is an essential to form a good humanity (?). In the twentieth century when free time and experience in actual life for the juveniles are being notable in a society, students should stop going to juku just for the sake of getting grades, but rather to have more practice at X.
The big different between public schools and juku is that juku is a profit-making institution. They would go bankrupt if they do not make enough profit. That is why the tuition is very expensive. It is estimated that the average tuition for elementary students is about *115,000 yen to 30,000 yen a month and 20,000 yen to 35,000 for junior high school students. These statistics apply to those students who go to juku three to four times a week taking two to three subjects. Some juku charge per hour. The fee is usually about 5,000 yen to 10,000. For example, if you take a two-hour lesson for 6,000 yen per hour twice a week, it would cost 1,248,000 yen a year. It is a lot of money. 71.8% of parents replied in the survey that the cost for the education of their children is one of a big burden on their family budget. It could cost even more as students take more classes or they precede to upper grade. However, in spite of this high tuition, some surveys are showing certain problems with Japanese students' academic skills and their lifestyle.
According to the survey carried out by the ministry of education-the survey was carried twice, 1981~1982 and 1993~1995-Japanese students turned out to be very good at memorizing and to have the high ability levels in reading and writing. Those abilities were internationally at the top level, too. However one problem that Japanese students face is that they can not think on their own or express their opinions enough. They are not good at applying their high ability to real world situations. If you asked the students to calculate the answer to a problem, they would find the right answer but would not be able to properly explain why that is the correct answer. Furthermore, they would not have much of an opinion about how to solve problems in society or in the world when compared to the students in other foreign countries. One of the reasons why students go to juku is that they want to go to a prestigious school. However, if the only thing students learn at juku is how to memorize and not know how to apply the methods to a routine life, it would not be worth going to juku. What students should acquire in this age is the ability to live a good quality of life.
Another survey presents a typical lifestyle of a student who gets exhausted from going juku. A student gets up at eight o'clock in the morning and goes to school. He falls asleep during the first period. Having some fast food as soon as he gets out of school, he goes straight to juku at five o'clock. He studies until nine or ten o'clock and goes home. He finally goes to bed sometime after one o'clock after finishing his homework from juku. He has no time to relax and interact with people. Another case is that a student pretends to leave home for juku and actually head for a game center. He hangs out with his bad friends late at night and comes back at about the time he is supposed to be back from juku. These life styles do not create a good human nature.
The survey, carried out in 1998, showed a correlation between the lack of their free time and interacting with nature, and the rate of troubles students cause such as easily losing tempers, being violent and so on. The more experiences in actual life the students have the more moral and ethical they are. Also a positive correlation was found between the high graded students and the amount of time they spent in actual life. (-more specific) In some cases, high achieving students in elementary school fail to do well in high school. They tend to be the students who crammed at juku when they were young and most of them just can not get out of their bad lifestyle. Now the society is paying attention to how the ministry of education is going to work these problems out.
The inquiry about the ministry's policy to provide students with a good environment, to learn how to live was brought up in June of 1999. As the existence of juku is becoming so big that it can not be neglected, the ministry stated, in the submitted report, juku as a learning place outside of the school environment. Juku was officially recognized for the first time at the council. Based on the statement, the report also said that excessive work at juku has a bad influence on students in terms of their health and scholastic ability. The theme at the educational council was how to cultivate the juveniles' ability to live. What the society needs is changing. It is no longer the time when students cram at juku to get good grades. They should have more free time and experience actual life more to build up a good human nature and to be able to live a richer life.
*1-125 yen is about a dollar