Minato Ward to Turn Local Schools into International Schools

[Mulboyne]

Minato Ward has decided that the Japanese skills of some of the foreign pupils at elementary schools are so weak that it makes more sense to teach them some parts of the curriculum in English. The first school to introduce this system is one in Minami Azabu. The ward says that, as far as it knows, this will be the first time a public school in Japan has decided on such an "international school" policy. Minato, together with Shinjuku, has one of the highest ratios of foreign residents of any administrative district in the country. Minato says their research has shown around 70% of foreign children in the ward speak English so that was the language selected for use. Under the system, foreign kids will be taught subjects like science, mathematics and social studies in separate lessons, using English language materials with content based on those used by their Japanese peers. Sports, music, art and household studies will be taught in Japanese with some English included. In these lessons, the main teacher will be assisted by a qualified teacher with English skills. The trial will start at the Minami Azabu school from April with an expectation that the system will be fully up and running from next year. The Minato Board of Education says the scheme is not simply about helping foreign students cope at school, it's also a chance for Japanese students to gain experience of a different culture at an early age.


Source (Japanese)

[Pearse]

Minato Ward has decided that the Japanese skills of some of the foreign pupils at elementary schools are so weak that it makes more sense to teach them some parts of the curriculum in English. ...Minato says their research has shown around 70% of foreign children in the ward speak English so that was the language selected for use.

As soon as I started reading this an alarm started ringing in my paranoid FG brain and sure enough:

...The Minato Board of Education says the scheme is not simply about helping foreign students cope at school, it's [color="Red"]also[/color] a chance for Japanese students to gain experience of a different culture at an early age.

also

?

[AML]

You know, my wife used to work in an international school.
And every year around enrollment time, dozens of Jp couples and their kids would come hoping to find placement.

And every year she would inform them that their kids could not be accepted.

"Why!?" cried those parents. "We have money!" they would exclaim.

and even sometimes: "this is discrimination!"

And every time she would have to explain too them:

"its not about money. Your child cant speak English, and you plan to have your child attend a JP school or university. Therefore we can not accept your application"

An international school is NOT a goddamn ekaiwa school! Students go to these schools to continue the curriculum they studied in their home country, & in their native language!
They always intend to go back to their home country, and they will not enter any JP school or university.

If you start with the curriculum of another country you have to end with it too.
Too many dumb parents just dont get that in other countries, what you learn actually matters!

[IparryU]

Under the system, foreign kids will be taught subjects like science, mathematics and social studies in separate lessons, using English language materials with content based on those used by their Japanese peers. Sports, music, art and household studies will be taught in Japanese with some English included. In these lessons, the main teacher will be assisted by a qualified teacher with English skills.

epic fail as always with the jap style of edumacation...

is this at honmura? or is their a suku-ru called minami-azabu?

[Pearse]

I'm sure there are a variety of opinions among the parents of these children, but if my child spoke mostly English at home and with his friends outside school, I would want even more intensive Japanese language at the school. The kids will need Japanese language skills to live here, no matter how long the stay is. Even if the children will return to their English speaking country after a short stay here, the more Japanese they used and learned here the more they would retain it later in life.
Will the switch to education in English be mandatory? I would be up in arms if it were.

[matsuki]

I'm sure there are a variety of opinions among the parents of these children, but if my child spoke mostly English at home and with his friends outside school, I would want even more intensive Japanese language at the school. The kids will need Japanese language skills to live here, no matter how long the stay is. Even if the children will return to their English speaking country after a short stay here, the more Japanese they used and learned here the more they would retain it later in life.
Will the switch to education in English be mandatory? I would be up in arms if it were.

THIS, and LOL

You know, my wife used to work in an international school.
And every year around enrollment time, dozens of Jp couples and their kids would come hoping to find placement.

And every year she would inform them that their kids could not be accepted.

"Why!?" cried those parents. "We have money!" they would exclaim.

and even sometimes: "this is discrimination!"

And every time she would have to explain too them:

"its not about money. Your child cant speak English, and you plan to have your child attend a JP school or university. Therefore we can not accept your application"

An international school is NOT a goddamn ekaiwa school! Students go to these schools to continue the curriculum they studied in their home country, & in their native language!
They always intend to go back to their home country, and they will not enter any JP school or university.

If you start with the curriculum of another country you have to end with it too.
Too many dumb parents just dont get that in other countries, what you learn actually matters!

Ancient Gaikoku tradition! Sorry we cannot break with tradition, it is our gaikoku culture

[Mulboyne]

[CHiZZoPs]

Actually research has proven that a bilingual education supporting both growth in the native language as well as the second language is far more effective for the student learning the second language than it is by throwing them into a classroom only taught in the second language (ala the typical American approach to ESL). The problem is academic language versus basic interpersonal conversation skills. BICS develop quickly, but without deliberate effort on the part of the educators, students will not learn the academic language, and thus languish. This is what happens with all the hispanic students in the states who are passed out of the meager language assistance programs into the mainstream classroom based on their conversational language and not their academic language.

If done right, both Japanese and foreign-born students would benefit from the program and come out fluent in both languages, but it looks like this isn't going to be the case.