The number of children who are not attending school has risen sharply. Each school should examine whether they are providing classrooms where children can have peace of mind.
The number of bullying and truancy cases hit record highs in the previous school year, according to a survey by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry.
During the year, about 410,000 cases of bullying were recognized by elementary, junior high and high schools across Japan. This figure has increased due to the inclusion of incidents such as fights and children making fun of each other. The criteria change from year to year, and the yardsticks used by each prefecture also differ.
One figure that can be compared over the passage of time is the number of serious bullying cases, as stipulated by the law on promoting measures to prevent bullying. According to the survey, there were about 470 such cases in the 2017 school year. The fact that this number increased about 20 percent from the previous year underlines the gravity of this situation. About 70 percent of children in these cases stopped going to school.
The number of truant students at elementary and junior schools topped 140,000. This figure has increased for five consecutive years and jumped by more than 10,000 from the previous year. The surge in truant elementary school students is especially worrying. The education ministry also considers this to be a "disturbing situation."
The number of such students had declined for five straight years from 2007, but started increasing from 2013. In the autumn of 2011, a second-year male student at a junior high school in Otsu committed suicide after he was bullied. It appears this triggered a growing belief that "there is no need for a child to go to school if they feel so bad that they would rather die."
The law to ensure education opportunities was passed in 2016. This law encouraged administrative authorities to provide relevant information for truant students to study at venues outside regular schools. The ministry also called on authorities not to make students attending school their only goal.
Careful words, deeds vital
Private facilities, such as free schools, are vital as an alternative option for truant students. Some children could learn because they feel comfortable in the unconstrained atmosphere at these facilities. The important thing is to enable children who could potentially return to school to do so at the appropriate time.
One trend cannot be glossed over. In the past, 30 percent of elementary and junior high school students who became truant returned to class during the same school year. That figure has slipped for the past three years and was stuck at 25 percent in the 2017 school year. Are adults around children who could return to school hesitating to encourage them to do so?
Regarding causes of truancy in the 2017 academic year, 17 percent of cases were due to "human relationships" including bullying, 30 percent to "lack of motivation" and 33 percent to "anxiety." Experts have detailed the importance of promptly evaluating why a child has become truant. If a week or 10 days pass, a child will fall behind in their studies and it will become harder to join groups of friends, making it more difficult to return to school.
A follow-up survey conducted by the education ministry in 2014 found that 85 percent of students who became truant at junior high went on to high school. Forty percent of students who stopped attending school for some time negatively viewed this experience, with some saying they "regretted it and wish they had stayed at school."
A school is an indispensable place where children learn social skills and fundamental academic knowledge. Being truant brings the risk of disadvantaging a child's career path and failing to promote social independence.
One cause of truancy that struggles to appear in surveys conducted through teachers is a student's "relationship with their teachers." In the follow-up survey, 26 percent of students who had been truants cited this as a factor. All teachers should once again reflect on this point.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov. 1, 2018)
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