Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006

READERS IN COUNCIL

By B.K. COTTLE

Tokyo

I could not agree more with Robert McKinney's comments in his Oct. 24 letter, "Full load for education reform." As a university lecturer, I am quite familiar with the need to reform Japan's educational system. By the time students reach university level, they have no interest in education. And why should they? The impetus to study and learn is no longer present once the university entrance examinations have been passed. As an unfortunate result, university educators are faced with students who are on a four-year holiday until they join the ranks of salarymen and office ladies.

I find Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's ideas for educational reform to be highly misguided. At a time when Japan needs greater international awareness and cultural tolerance, Abe prefers to develop tunnel vision and focus on nationalism. Multicultural-development and bilingual-education research has demonstrated that Japanese students exposed to other cultures have stronger Japanese identities and appreciation for Japanese culture than Japanese students who do not receive such exposure.

In addition, these students have greater confidence, motivation, open-mindedness, and are more expressive. With the Japanese birthrate on the decline and foreign population increasing, wouldn't it make sense to create an educational system that produces internationally minded Japanese citizens? Decreasing holidays and increasing classroom time is not going to improve test scores, end violent behavior or produce a more beautiful Japan.

Moving away from rote memorization to a student-centered learning system and ending the secondary education "test hell" are just some ways the downward slide of the Japanese educational system can be reversed. Until then, I'll happily pay to send my Japanese-American children to an international school.

The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.

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