Violence in Japanese schools

Press, 26 February 1981, Page 17

Violence in Japanese schools

Japan’s education system is being put to the test as reports of student delinquency — ranging from truancy, smoking, drinking, thinner-sniffing and extortion to teacher beating and school gangs visiting other schools to combat rival gangs over "territorial issues” — flood the Japanese newsmedia. According to a nationwide newspaper survey of 200 junior high school pupils conducted last month, 40 per cent felt a "latent desire” to hit their teachers because they often admonish, ignore or humiliate pupils. A National .Police Agency (N.P.A.) survey released this month shows that last year at least 462 teachers suffered just that fate. In the 1558 cases of student violence at; junior and senior high schools, 462 teachers were attacked by pupils at 187 schools throughout the nation. N.P.A. figures show that 85 per cent of the delinquents involved had low academic records, over 55 per cent had police records, and 95 per cent of the attacks were by groups of pupils. . If Darwinism no longer applies *iri other affluent nations, it'is. alive and well in ‘Japan, where, in order to ,sif t ■the-intellectually weak from 4heWtrong, eyen : kindergar- . tens resort to using .entrance PYamtnations. ■; Sending ■ a •’child to the bright” kindergarten can lead to the bright* primary school, and

so on through the system until the aspirant arrives at the "right” company. But for many of those who know early that they have little chance of entering the better establishments, the frustrations of failure become uncontrollable. In a Japanese newspaper interview with six junior high school boys who were about to sit entrance examinations for a so-called easy-to-enter senior high school, one pupil was quoted as saying that their teacher regarded them as failures because they were “unable to enter elite public or private high schools.” “Teachers treat • slow learners as hopeless cases and ignore them in class. Many teachers accept questions only from those students whose academic record is excellent. They just don’t care about those who are behind,” another pupil said. High achievers" and stragglers alike complain they have no time to relax or enjoy outdoor activities. After coming home from school, they must set out for preparatory school (juku). Many believe that without extra lessons, they would be unable to succeed in the exams. Juku lessons over, more study at home continues late into the night at their parents’ insistence. . "Because of this atmosphere at school and at home — study, study, study — we feel as though our frustration

and anger are about to explode,” another pupil said. With the rate of explosions last year up 29 per cent over the 1979 figure, many parents and educators are wondering how much of the iceberg remains below the water. Schools, to avoid reputations as nests of violence which would ward off bright student entrants, do their utmost to hush up the attacks, and it is only when police are called in that the incidents are officially counted. At a recent Japan Teachers’ Union national confer-

ence, school violence topped the agenda for the 12,000 teachers present. The union’s chairman, Mr Motofumi Makieda, urged the nation's teachers to “fight education devastation.” At the conference, teachers’ indifference to students’ problems was cited as a cause of the widespread delinquency. Teachers, however," point out that “study, study, study” is the parents’ command and it is not the pupils who pay school fees. Physically disciplining pupils has not been allowed since the war, they say, which leaves them near

powerless, over the unruly. Others see the problem as indicative of changing values in an increasingly affluent society in which students who sight goals other - than college and company are let down by an education system that does not have the flexibility to accommodate them. The police agency is warning that violent students face arrest, and instructing local police to step up patrols of school areas. Incidents are expected to increase in the coming weeks when school graduation ceremonies are held. In one television interview, the pupils’ faces blacked out, a pupil told how he and others would visit a teacher at his home to extort money in exchange for promising

not to tease the teacher at school. Japanese children nowadays learn at an early age how to deal with adults. On a crowded train it is invariably the young son or daughter who takes, and keeps, the seat when someone offers his to the mother, even though she may be pregnant or carrying a baby strapped to her back, or both. Police recently demonstrated they too could pamper the young. Four preparatory students were arrested for 50 thefts from cars of goods worth $20,000, if was learned last week. On hearing that the students were about to sit university entrance exams, the police decided to delay their investigation until the exams were over. .

From

BRUCE ROSCOE

in Tokyo