About 2,000 prospective Assistant Language Teachers (ALT) with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program of the government beginning September cannot enter Japan due to the spread of the novel coronavirus, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
ALTs are assigned to primary, middle and high schools nationwide to teach "actual and practical English-language skills" such as those used by people living in English-speaking countries. Local governments planning to increase the number of ALTs have been perplexed and annoyed by the possible ALT shortage.
According to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry (MEXT), 20,000 ALTs are currently stationed nationwide, and of those about 5,000 are new graduates from foreign universities who were invited to sign up through the JET Program of Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, the Foreign Ministry, and MEXT. Their terms and contracts can be renewed every year for up to five years.
Every summer, the JET Program undergoes a major changeover, and in September 2,082 new participants from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and others were expected to arrive and start work. However, as entry restrictions are ongoing from where the spread of the novel coronavirus is serious, including Europe and the U.S., the prospects for many of the would-be educators to teach in Japan as planned are diminishing day by day.
MEXT has decided to not invite new participants from nations where the lifting of entry restrictions to Japan is still undecided as of the end of September. To make up for the potential loss, MEXT has asked 500 of the 1,700 retiring ALTs to continue for the time being. Even with these special measures, there still may be a shortage of around 1,500 ALT positions remaining to be filled among local communities that have been planning either to open up new positions or to increase their regional numbers of ALTs after the summer break.
In the Kobe municipal board of education, there are currently 131 ALTs. Starting this spring, about one out of three English classes in the fifth and sixth grades of their elementary schools was assisted by an ALT. The board had planned to add more than 70 positions during the summer changeover with the aim of all English classes being assisted by an ALT starting from September.
However, such plan is difficult to realize amid the spread of the novel coronavirus. An official in charge of the project said, "Among the 31 ALTs scheduled to be terminated and return home, 15 will be reappointed. As much as possible, we want the current situation to be kept the same [to provide English classes]."
To mitigate the loss of ALTs, MEXT in July told boards of education nationwide to "have online conversations with foreign people" and to "hire local people fluent in English as tutors."
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